Stone in the Pond
by NemesisVengence
Summary: How much impact can one person have on the normal flow of time? Duel Academy's newest student is going to have to find out exactly that, along with not only who is helping him along, but why they are doing so. (Self-Insert OC, 1st-person view)
1. Chapter 1 - Arrivals

_Well… I guess I'm here…_

Tipping my head to the side to take a glance out of the window of the helicopter I found myself inside, I tilted my hand over my forehead and adjusted the angle I was leaning at, as I had suddenly found myself assailed by the blinding sunlight coming through the window and into my face.

With the light now slightly eased, I could glimpse outside enough to catch a glance of the solitary island we were headed toward, guided by the smoke billowing from the volcano that made its presence not just known, but obvious to anyone even taking a passing glance.

 _So this is Academy Island then…? Well… I suppose there are worse places to think this through…_

As my gaze drifted from the volcano to the island itself, however, I felt a tangible shudder run down my spine, as the actual sight of the buildings, not to mention the island itself, was burned into my brain, after having seen far more than enough aerial shots of the landmass to be able to name most of the locations merely by sight.

 _That's weird… but… it feels… almost comforting for some reason…_

However, I was shaken out of this train of thought by an elbow finding its way into my side "Hey… Marcus! Hey! Earth to Marcus!" the sharp, high voice of the guy in the seat next to me rang into my ears.

It took me a moment to process the name I had chosen when I had been asked for one, turning only slowly to look the boy in the eye, a full head shorter than me even sitting, I wasn't sure which of the vivid colours visible was more distracting: his parted, neon-green hair, his shockingly blue eyes, or the bright yellow jacket he had already donned after it had been given to him once they were actually placed. "Yes, Kyle, I'm paying attention. What do you want?" I finally manage to respond, looking the baby-faced young man in the eye finally.

"Ugh… were you even listening!? I just finished telling you about how the dorm system works!" Kyle protested, clearly annoyed.

"No… I was listening… Blue is the fancy dorm for the 'elite'…" I started to prattle off. Honestly, I hadn't been paying the slightest bit of attention, but I could simply call this to mind by memory. "Yellow, our dorm, is for the middle-of-the-road. Smart, but not typically well-connected… and Red… well… the bottom has to be somewhere…" I commented.

"Oh?" Kyle responded, shaking his head "That may be, but you don't have to put it like that…" rubbing the back of his head after defending the reds a moment. "Besides…" the younger man resumed "You got the points about the dorms… but not what I mentioned… do you know how the girls' accommodation works here?" a smirk now coming after his annoyed tone behind his questioning. It seemed my comment about the reds didn't sit well.

"You know… now that you mention it…" I started, rubbing my chin in thought. "I never actually considered that… as far as I know, most, if not all, the female students end up in Blue for some reason… Is it that big a hurdle for female applicants…?" I pondered aloud.

"See? I knew you weren't paying attention!" Kyle declared triumphantly. "The female applicants, unless they specifically request otherwise, are assigned to Obelisk Blue for administrative purposes! I heard one of the professors talking about it! Umm… Crowler, I think…"

"Yeah… that would be him, probably…" I commented, shaking my head slightly. Honestly, there wouldn't have been any way of me knowing that, as how female students were sorted into their accommodations hadn't been covered in my experience of this world's continuity before I had ended up here…

* * *

 _At this point, a flicker in my memory, mentally re-living the rather harrowing events of how I'd found myself here:_

 _I had been traveling down an alley back home in an attempt to get to a bus stop on time, which was when things got… strange. The alley felt like it went on forever, even though rounding the corner should have only taken a minute, at least five had passed even at a run, while the buildings seemed to stretch, the world distorting as I passed through it, panic had effectively taken hold as I sprinted forward, finally managing to round the corner in a blind attempt to get out of this distorted mess, passing what felt like walls of hot air as I ran._

 _As I ran, something strange seemed to be happening in my peripheral vision: my shadow was stretching further and further down the alley, becoming more and more visible… was the alley getting brighter…?_

 _Getting closer and closer to a light at the end of the alley, which I assumed was the way back into town, I ran headlong into an invisible wall, just before what appeared to be the end of the walls, a distorted light on the other side of the wall obscuring any features that might be on the other side._

 _Finally, I turned around a moment to see what the source of the brightening light behind me was, now seeing… it: an approaching wall of light, advancing toward me down the alley in a downright menacing manner. Considering how solid the barrier in front of me was, however, I was fairly certain that it would be as well…_

 _Is this how I'm going to die?! Caught in some supernatural death tunnel by the hard light equivalent of the garbage masher?!_

 _To hell with that._

 _Turning on my heel back toward the unseen barrier in front of me, I now attempted a kick at the barrier, feeling like I had just hit a large window in front of me, but not damaging it at all._

 _Not wasting any time, I charged into the barrier, which, apart from causing my shoulder to begin searing in pain, caused small cracks to appear in the wall, as the light from behind me grew closer and closer, almost daring me to try to escape it._

 _Come on…! Come on…!_

 _Charging into the wall again and again, despite the pain shooting from my shoulder through my arm, I smashed into the wall over and over again, causing the crack to grow larger and larger in the wall, until, just as the light wall was about to crush me into the glass, I was finally sent through the glass in my final attempt, reaching the other side in a sprawling dive._

* * *

" _Marcus? Marcus…?_ Oh, not again! He's zoned out again!" a familiar voice then called me out of my memory. Snapping back into reality, my eyes found their focus on the young man next to me, before I realized he was trying to ask me something else.

"Oh… sorry about that… everything's just been so hectic lately, having trouble keeping focused…" I then commented, rather impressed by this point with how on-the-spot my explanations were up until this point.

"Heh, didn't seem to be a problem during your test… You know… I still never really got where you came from… most applicants have to work through the process for months before even getting a spot in the examinations… but you managed to get added in at the last minute…" Kyle then commented, looking out the window himself at the academy.

"Oh… right… that." I started "Well… if you'd really like to know… I wasn't exactly expecting to take the selection test myself…" rubbing the back of my head lightly as I started to recount the tale for him. That much of the statement I'd made was true.

How did I get into the exam?

* * *

 _Once I finally got back to my feet, I looked around the area at the end of the alley. It was strange… the alley leading back looked exactly like the one at home: dreary and dark, lined with dark brown brick on one side, and what looked like flat white stucco on the other. Stepping over the invisible boundary back into the alleyway, absolutely NOTHING felt different about from how I felt now: strangely normal, considering a moment ago I'd had a searing pain in my shoulder and arm, and literally slamming through a wall of plate glass._

 _Speaking of which…_

 _Turning on my heel, I looked at the ground where I'd fallen, small shards of glass seemed to simply fade into dust, before I realized that, despite the look of the alley behind me, it ceased before it should have rounded the corner, ending only in a fire escape for the brown brick building._

 _Well, that's not good…_

 _Rushing over to the wall, I ran my hand over the brick on the wall: unfortunately, it felt no different from a normal wall, the rough texture of the brick against my hand told me that it was NOT the same as the wall I'd forced my way through._

 _You have GOT to be kidding me…_

 _Now, finally scanning the area outside of the alleyway, I definitely wasn't at home, as I didn't recognize ANY building on this street. I'd taken the route many times, and definitely knew what the area normally looked like…_

 _Why was I still trying to find familiarity!? I LITERALLY just escaped death from a wall of hard light after an alleyway stretched on forever…! Something was happening here!_

 _Taking a moment, I took stock of the situation: I was in the middle of a strange city, zero idea of where I was, zero ID that would be acceptable here (most likely), no usable money, and not even the slightest clue of what to do! This is… well, I'm screwed._

" _Hey!" a deep voice then called out to me. Turning on my heel, I spotted the source of the voice: a man in a black business suit and sunglasses, leaning against a car and looking rather impatient. "Yeah, you! Come here!"_

 _Starting toward the man, rather confused, I spoke "If you are looking for directions, you may wish to ask someone else… I'm a little lost myself…" rubbing the back of my head as I attempted to quickly get out of this situation so that I might come up with an idea._

" _Lost? You wouldn't happen to be on your way to the duel dome, would you?" he then asked, sounding rather bemused at the moment._

" _Duel dome…?" I started to ask, an inkling of information that might give me a lead on where exactly I was. It wasn't much, but it was something. Deciding to chance asking a question in the direction my brain had jumped in, I asked "Would you mean the KaibaCorp duel dome? If so, then yes, I've been looking to go there all day!"_

 _That much was true. I had actually just come from a tournament on my way home and had been musing how awesome it would be were I actually able to duel with that kind of technology. I was prepared to hear something along the lines of 'what are you talking about?' and for him to mention some kind of gladiator-style fighting or something, before he simply gave a nod._

" _You know any other duel domes around here? But that at least means you're the guy I was waiting here for…" taking a glance down at his watch, he nodded "Exactly on time, too… you sure you were lost?"_

" _I thought I was…" I managed to reply "…but it looks like I'm in just the right place… at exactly the right time… crazy how coincidence works, right?"_

 _Wait… was my voice always that high? Did I gain a couple octaves after smashing through that window…? I'd have to look into that soon…_

" _Yeah, I guess… come on and get in… the arrival period for applicants to the preliminary exam is just about over…" he then stated, gesturing to the car._

 _Merely nodding, I could feel my knees starting to wobble as I started toward the door of the car "Do you need some help with that, kid?" the man then asked with a light chuckle as I continued toward the door._

" _N-no… no… I'm fine." I protested, before managing to get into the car. I was taking quite the risk with this: getting into a random car with a strange guy in a suit just because he gave an interesting answer to a question I asked._

 _But, really… wasn't exactly swimming in options… I had the feeling that doing this, I would find out one way or another what was going on here…_

" _You know…" the man driving now started to speak again after getting the car moving "I wasn't really sure he was being serious about meeting an applicant way out here… Not exactly standard procedure… but you showed up down to the minute when he said you would… but he never actually told me… what is your name…?"_

 _He waited there for someone he wasn't sure was coming, without knowing either their name, or what they looked like?_

 _He must have a hell of a lot of faith in whoever told him to wait there…_

 _When it came to my name, however, I had the distinct feeling that giving my real name might somehow lead to unintended consequences should something happen later, so I racked my brain for something which hopefully wouldn't sound too absurd "Marcus… Marcus Kolstet." I spoke, the first time somewhat reluctantly, but a little more confidently the second time._

" _Marcus, eh? All right then. We'll have a little bit of paperwork to complete when we get there, but you should be certain to take the test today… the written test will be administered should you complete the duel test successfully…" he then informed me._

" _Oh, good. Thank you for informing me…" I spoke plainly, enough of a smile on my face to keep him content while my brain bounced back and forth, trying to sort through enough questions to form them in my own head._

 _Something, or rather, someone, was going to great lengths to help me…_

 _Who was this? Who was 'he'? Why were they helping me…? How did they know I would be here…? What year is this…? Is this really where I think it is…? How do I live here…?_

 _What sort of exam was this…? Did he mean…?_

 _However, as I continued attempting to think through this, we passed through the city, where I caught a proper glimpse of something that rendered the result beyond doubt: the unmistakable KaibaCorp tower, flanked out front by a pair of Blue-Eyes White Dragon statues._

 _Bless that egotistical billionaire's love of those dragons!_

* * *

Again coming back to reality, I realized I, again, had yet to tell him anything, trying to remember my place to a bemused Kyle "Oh, right… my exam… well… like I said, a short time before, I hadn't expected to actually take part in the examination, as I hadn't done the written portion yet…" I explained "…though they seemed rather more understanding than I would have expected… still have no idea why…"

"Oh? Yeah… well, I can see why you weren't expecting to do the practical exam then… normally they're really strict about that kind of thing… That doesn't make any sense!" Kyle snapped at me.

"Yeah… like I said… I don't get it either… apparently whoever spoke to the school for me did a REALLY good job convincing them to allow me the chance to take the test…" I conjectured, no real idea who or what my apparent benefactor might be, but grateful to whoever-it-was nonetheless.

"That's beyond a mere 'great job'… academically, that's as close to a miracle as you'll get…" Kyle observed, a noise of assent from the seat behind us, as someone else seemed to be listening in on the tale.

Great… now the whole school's going to know I had some kind of special arrangement to get in! So much for being inconspicuous until I could figure out what was going on here…

"Well… anyway…" I resumed, returning to my own memory "Once I got there, though… I managed to get to a seat soon enough to catch the end of some guy's test… green hair, you might know him…" smirking a little as he quickly got what I meant.

"Oh? You saw that? Yeah, the tester didn't really have much chance once I got going… that last card destruction is what did it…" Kyle commented proudly before pointing at me. "Pretty sure EVERYONE saw yours, though, you WERE one of the last ones, after all…"

"Yeah… I don't know how I got through it…" I commented, a slight smirk across my face. Honestly, I was impressed with how well my deck had worked out, despite being patchwork, at least, it was compared to what I would normally build...

* * *

 _By the time I had completed the required paperwork (most of it was already filled out by someone), I had already worked out a set of rules for how I should duel until I knew more about how things worked here: no synchro summoning, or anything past that, or anything else the duel disks might reject – the last thing I needed right now was being accused of using fake cards… though, I could put in a few things that I knew wouldn't be on whatever light restriction list that might exist here, a mental list partially assembled of what absurd cards I could add to that list later._

 _Now stepping into the arena block, it looked rather more intimidating than I would have imagined: an enormous structure, surrounding the combatants on all sides with steel walls except for the ceiling… then row upon row of seats, many of them filled with the other prospective students… perhaps it WAS some kind of gladiator arena… after a fashion._

" _Are you ready to begin, young man?" the instructor across from me asked._

" _Of course I am, sir… who shall begin?" I then requested, deciding to play it safe for now._

" _You may not be as ready as you think… exam rules state the proctor goes first, kid…" the instructor responded condescendingly, to a general murmur from around the field. I couldn't catch what they were saying, but the general feeling of derision was palpable._

 _That doesn't make sense, though… I'm fairly certain Jaden went first when he did his exam! Perhaps Crowler figured he could end the duel more quickly if he had first attack… and he was in a position to bend the basic rules…_

" _Which I will now do! Game on!_ _ **(My LP: 4000 / Proctor LP: 4000)**_ _I begin with the spell card_ _ **Level Limit – Area B**_ _! In case its effect eludes you as well, any level 4 or higher monster face-up on the field is forced to defence mode! I will also set a monster face down, and two more face-down cards! Your move!"_

 _A feeling of unease continued to well in my gut as I drew my first card: no matter the new rules, I would still draw going second, which I had been grateful I wouldn't have to remember. "All right then… I'll start with the spell card_ _ **Solar Recharge**_ _! I discard my_ _ **Ryko, Lightsworn Hunter**_ _to draw two cards, as well as send two further cards from my deck to my graveyard!" Looking down at the two cards I milled, I let out an involuntary groan._

" _You may wish to also work on maintaining a straight face… I can read you like a book right now…" the examiner commented, looking across at me._

" _Yeah, I get it…" I couldn't help but respond. "I continue my turn with_ _ **Mystical Space Typhoon**_ _, in order to destroy your level limit spell card! Now I summon to the field_ _ **Lyla, Lightsworn Sorceress**_ _in attack mode!"_ _ **(ATK: 1700)**_ _deciding to merely test the waters a little, I stated "I enter my battle phase."_

" _Now I respond with my face-down card!_ _ **Gravity bind**_ _! You're not getting at my monster yet… no monster level 4 or above can attack now!"_

 _Nodding across at YET ANOTHER explanation of a card I fully understood, I then continued "Well then, I guess I will end my battle phase… I then activate Lyla's effect, shifting her to defence mode, while destroying your last face-down card!" watching a negate attack get shattered before setting a single card face down "After I set my face-down card… you may go…"_

 _As I started to remove cards from my deck without saying anything, his voice responded "…and what do you think you're doing?" which caused me to realize the mistake._

" _Oh, apologies… I'm so used to doing this without thinking I forget to explain… Lyla's ability causes me to send my top three cards to my graveyard at the end of each of my turns…"_

" _I'm going to issue you a warning… take another action out of turn, and you will be removed. Do you understand?" the instructor stated sternly._

" _Oh, of course, sir…" I responded sheepishly. I wasn't used to such a high-strung gaming environment when I dueled, so this was rather foreign to me. Besides… everyone knows what lightsworns do during the end phase… right?_

" _Very well then. I draw! Now, I flip summon_ _ **Morphing Jar Number 2**_ _!_ _ **(ATK: 800)**_ _By it's effect, we both now shuffle our monsters back into our decks, and reveal our top cards until we each have the same number of monsters we sent back!"_

 _I was so tempted to blurt out 'excavate', but managed to suppress that particular urge as I shuffled Lyla back into the deck. Revealing another copy of_ _ **Solar Recharge**_ _before reaching a lumina, I stated "I set_ _ **Lumina, Lightsworn Summoner**_ _face-down!"_ _ **(DEF: 1000)**_

" _I now set_ _ **Morphing Jar**_ _face down!"_ _ **(DEF: 600)**_ _the proctor finished, sending the two spells he got before that to the graveyard, as I sent solar recharge to the graveyard. "I also summon_ _ **Rocket Jumper**_ _in attack mode!"_ _ **(ATK: 1000)**_

" _Bit of a small one, isn't it…?" I blurted without thinking._

" _Yeah… it is. That's the point. This little number is allowed to attack your life points directly, while being a low enough level to escape gravity bind! Attack!"_

 _As the strange-looking rocket creature hurtled toward me, I felt myself take a step back at the sudden onrush of the figure, almost knocked off of my feet by the impact of the hologram's attack._ _ **(My LP: 4000 - 3000)**_

" _Your move, kid. Though, you're going to have to do better than you have been to impress me…" he then commented honestly. It seemed he wasn't the only one that thought that, as the atmosphere from the crowd had an almost hostile air to it._

 _With what seemed to be continuous taunting from the examiner, and the constant murmuring from the audience, it felt as if there was a growing pressure in my brain, a rising irritation that made me want to shut the audience up, and just destroy the examiner._

 _This is ridiculous… this day has just been too much!_

 _First I nearly die in an alley, then I fill out enough paperwork to practically fill a BINDER, and now that the duel's going down, they plan to berate me and piss me off at every turn!?_

 _Well… He wants me to impress him, does he…?_

" _All right then, you've got it! My turn!" I shouted, with a little more hostility than I originally intended. Drawing my next card, I couldn't help but smile a bit "Let's get started! I activate the spell card_ _ **Charge of the Light Brigade**_ _! I now send the top three cards of my deck to my graveyard, in order to search my deck for a level 4 or lower lightsworn monster, and add it to my hand! I'll take_ _ **Jain, Lightsworn Paladin**_ _!" adding the monster to my hand, I looked at my graveyard "Though that's not the only monster I got… when_ _ **Wulf, Lightsworn Beast**_ _is sent from my deck to my graveyard, I summon it to the field!"_ _ **(ATK: 2100)**_

" _Neither will help much… did you forget my gravity bind trap?" The proctor asked._

" _Not at all. I just don't care. I now flip summon_ _ **Lumina, Lightsworn Summoner**_ _!_ _ **(ATK: 1000)**_ _I activate her special ability! By discarding a card, I can special summon a lightsworn monster in my graveyard! Though, if I already have a lightsworn monster in my graveyard, I can special summon the one I discarded if it is also a lightsworn! I now do exactly that, discarding my_ _ **Jain, Lightsworn Paladin**_ _in order to special summon her to my field!_ _ **(ATK: 1800)**_ _Now… as for your gravity bind… I tribute my Lumina in order to summon_ _ **Celestia, Lightsworn Angel**_ _!_ _ **(ATK: 2300)**_ _As for her ability, when I tribute a lightsworn in order to summon her, I can send the top 4 cards of my deck to my graveyard, in order to destroy up to 2 cards on your side of the field!" sending the cards, I then stated "I now destroy your gravity bind, as well as the face-down morphing jar on your field!" watching them shatter, I moved to the next point of my turn, "Now… Jain! Attack Rocket Jumper! When she attacks a monster, she gains another 300 attack points!"_ _ **(ATK: 1800 - 2100)**_

 _As Jain cut the rocket in half, I could feel some level of pride as I watched the examiners life points drop_ _ **(Proctor LP: 4000 - 2900)**_ _"All right then… Wulf! Direct attack!"_ _ **(Proctor LP: 2900 – 800)**_ _"Now… Celestia… let's wrap this up! Direct attack!" The angel following up Wulf's attack with a blast of light toward the examiner._ _ **(Proctor LP: 800 – 0)**_

" _I believe that'll do it…" I finished, not really able to come up with some manner of over-the-top game-winning phrase off the top of my head. Honestly, I was just glad the rather exhausting experience was over for now._

" _Not bad. You need to improve your semantics, but your gameplay foundation is solid." The examiner concluded._

* * *

"Yeah, I wasn't really sure what to think that first turn, but you just exploded out that second turn…" Kyle commented. "Though you seemed to get pretty worked up by the time you started that second turn…"

"Yeah…" I couldn't help but reply, rubbing the back of my head, somewhat embarrassed that it had gotten to that point. "He was turning the screws on me, though… so I just let him have it…" I explained, trying not to think about just how angry he and the audience had gotten me, nor could I really tell him what actually happened before that.

Though, honestly, the duel itself was easy compared that huge written test they'd made me complete between the end of the duel and their takeoff time. The questions weren't particularly difficult, but there were a lot of them to be done in a rather hurried timeframe.

"Couldn't have done that badly on the written test, either, or I wouldn't be in yellow, now would I…?" I then considered aloud. "Either way…" I resumed, now looking down at the island again "We seem to be descending now… let's get ready for our arrival…"

Yeah… get ready… hopefully then I can figure out what was going on, or, perhaps more importantly at this point, WHEN it was going on…


	2. Chapter 2 - Early Ripples

As I entered the Duel Academy main building, the clear, beautiful weather I had been observing up until now provided a rather ironic contrast to my current state of mind: nothing seemed to be plain to me, and yet I couldn't help but have a sense of guilty excitement at the situation I had found myself.

Hell… how often does one step into a dream like this…?

I was now properly dressed in the rather snazzy yellow jacket I had been given before the flight, but hadn't really felt the compulsion to wear until we had arrived at the academy itself. It had some kind of effect on me, to be honest, like wearing a Ra Yellow jacket cemented the fact 100% that I was actually a student at Duel Academy. The shoulders were, honestly, somewhat tight, but it was to be expected: I hadn't exactly been fitted for one…

The first surprise today came when, rather than Chancellor Sheppard giving their start-of-term speech, CROWLER was the one up there doing so, after a brief explanation that during Chancellor Sheppard's absence, he would be in charge of the academy.

 _Wait… he's not here…?_

The rest of the speech hadn't been anything informative, just the typical bluster one would expect from the proud, elitist professor about what he expected from the students who had proven themselves worthy to be here.

 _There was only one point in time that Sheppard was conspicuously absent at the beginning of the year… that means…_

 _Oh, joy… means I'm due a visit from a cult at some point…_

However, even then, I hadn't been able to leave with Kyle to go see our dorm building, as, when I was starting to exit the hall, a rather strange voice called out to me "Excuse me! Mr. Kolstet! Marcus Kolstet, you are required to report to the Chancellor's office after the assembly! Toute de Suite!" tilting my head to notice the source, a rather short, partially-bald man with a downright-comical pencil moustache was currently looking at me from the upper part of the hall.

"Very well, sir…" I responded, managing to keep my tone respectful as I remembered that this odd man was Vice-Chancellor at the moment.

"Probably gotta talk about how to cover up his terrible dueling…" a snide voice from closer to the door mocked, taking off before I could retort.

Don't you worry, Reggie, you pompous brat, you'll get yours… much sooner than you think…

"What do you think Crowler wants to see you about?" Kyle asked, attempting to veer the subject away from that last comment.

"Honestly, I've got no idea… I probably forgot to cross a 't' or dot an 'I' on the application forms or something like that… you go on ahead, I'll see you at the dorm…" I requested, in an attempt to sound reassuring.

I didn't lie. I had ZERO idea what he wanted with me. I obviously did well enough to be placed into Yellow, so I doubt it's anything to do with me being stupid… but he wanted to see me, so I might as well get this over with…

Standing just outside the office now, I now stepped over to the door and knocked politely.

That crass, sharp voice called from inside "Yes? Who is it?"

"Marcus Kolstet, sir. You requested me." I answered simply, trying to retain a sense of normality despite the strangeness of my situation.

"Ah, yes. Very good. Come in." came the reply through the door, before I opened it and stepped inside.

It had been one thing seeing Dr. Crowler while he was delivering his speech, but with his full attention on me now, I almost gave an involuntary shudder at how unsettling he could be. "You wanted to see me, sir?"

"Ah yes, please, sit down, Mr. Kolstet. This won't take long… we just need to go over your application…" Crowler informed me, before sitting back down behind the large desk in this office.

Must be a rather satisfying outcome for him, having Sheppard away for an undisclosed amount of time, leaving him completely in charge. If this had happened earlier, things would have ended badly, both for Jaden, and for the academy for lack of said Jaden. "Oh? I was told everything was in order at the examination…" I responded, sounding surprised as I looked over the form he placed in front of me.

"Yes, it was… and that is the point… part of this application seems to have been written by you, while the rest of it was clearly detailed by someone else… I would just like to confirm the content for your file…" Crowler then stated, sounding annoyed he had to be bothered with such a monotonous task.

"Very well, sir… ask away…" I responded, while hurriedly trying to memorize the parts that weren't written by me with the brief time I had to look it over. His demonstration of the difference might have given me the opportunity to survive his grilling…

After roughly 15 minutes of back-and-forth over the content of my application, I came away with not only an impression of how thorough my benefactor was in filling in the blanks of my life here, but also with Crowler being rather more thorough than I would have expected. He was an amateur at interrogation, given that he let me see the document before grilling me on it, but still, he was quite detailed in his questions, to the point that I nearly fumbled it more than once.

"All right… your story checks out, Mr. Kolstet. I must say, I was surprised at how well your performance on the written test was, considering how long I gave to write it… but be that as it may, there is NO special treatment here… the only thing that gets you through at Duel Academy is your own ability, and willingness to work hard…" I was surprised how downright encouraging Crowler was actually being: perhaps being put in the big job for a while is giving him a change in perspective… or perhaps he was merely trying to impress the freshman by acting more like someone in charge should "…enjoy the rest of your day." He finished formally, before I finally left the office.

One thing was clear: he would be watching me… it probably sticks in his craw that I got in while doing the tests in reverse order… despite only having half the normal time to do the written portion!

"Oh, well, nothing I can do about that…" I commented to myself, before resuming my walk down the hall, making to leave the building and get to the yellow dorm.

On my way out, I passed a girl in an obelisk blue uniform: her slightly pointed face, long sheet of white hair and wide-rimmed glasses struck me as rather familiar, as was the almost detached look on her face as she walked past me – I could swear I'd met her before somewhere…

"Are they right about you?" a cold female voice then spoke from behind me as she passed.

Turning on my heel, I called back to her "What are you talking about!?" however, she didn't break pace at my question.

Speaking of unsettling…

Shaking my head, I turned back and now, thankfully, made my way to the yellow dorm without any further complications.

Once I made my way into my room, I finally had enough of a lull in everything that was going on that I could try to piece together what was going on…

My voice was higher than normal… even when I simply thought out loud, I could notice the difference from my usual tone, and not only that, but my bag was more difficult to lift, just like back in the city, but with the addition of the duel disk I had been given on arrival, my arms and shoulders were actually somewhat strained from my walk today.

Stepping toward the large mirror in one corner of the room, I decided it couldn't hurt to check, and besides: I wanted to see how I look in this uniform.

However, I'd only gotten halfway into frame before realizing something was wrong. It didn't… look right.

 **I** didn't look right…

Taking the last step needed to reveal myself in my entirety, my eyes were now wide with shock: I was visibly younger! This wasn't me! It was… not myself… I…

Stepping back, my thoughts were rather incoherent as I tried to process what I was seeing, tripping over the desk chair and falling to the ground with a loud thud, the chair adding to the noise: the new pain in my legs as well, but right now, I was too engrossed in what I just realized.

 _But even when I was on the way here… when I broke down that wall… I was normal…! What the hell happened!? What kind of nonsense is this!?_

Then again… taking stock of what happened, it made enough sense that something had happened: after all, no one had given me a second look when I turned up at a Duel Academy Entrance Exam, and the students here are all rather younger than I am-

Was.

I should have expected it, really. Otherwise, I'd have been drawing stares like when that reporter tried to infiltrate Duel Academy last year…

Truthfully, it's something most people would wish for… what was that phrase?

' _If I knew then what I know now.'_

I suppose I can put that theory into practice now…

My thoughts were interrupted by the sudden arrival of people in my room "Marcus?!" I knew that voice… turning to see Kyle, with someone else having come in behind him.

"Are you all right!?" the second voice, a clipped English accent toned with concern, was easily recognizable, as I got up slowly, wobbling back up to my feet.

"Perfectly fine, Bastion… just got tripped up a bit when I turned around without looking…" I stated in an attempt to brush off the sharp pain in my legs.

"Oh? You're okay? Good." Kyle then inputted. "Well… here we are… I was going to introduce you two, but it seems you already know Bastion…"

"Indeed I do. I've heard of him. Marcus Kolstet…" I then confirmed for him, extending a hand to try to salvage the situation from my slip of the tongue.

"Indeed? Well then, I was unaware I had such a reputation to precede me…" Bastion then stated, though he sounded mistrustful of my declaration. He was justified in such: there was little chance I would have heard of any individual student, except perhaps Jaden, prior to arrival at Duel Academy… After all: the Kagemaru incident with the Sacred Beasts would have doubtless made the rounds, at least at the academy if not outside of it, and Jaden would have been mentioned.

"I am quite thorough in my research, Bastion…" I told him, having decided on an approach, I was going to stick with it. Not doing so would start putting holes in my story already.

"Really?" Kyle asked, looking amused at this "Didn't look like you thoroughly researched the examination rules to me…"

Heaving a sigh, I retorted "Anyone can have a slip-up, buddy… just because I know what to do doesn't mean I'll always remember to do it…"

"Right… anyway… if you are all right, I should be getting back to my room… I must crack a problem I have been having with a summoning calculation… good day, Marcus…" he finished, before turning back to the door, starting toward it.

"Hang on a second, Bastion!" I called back to him before he left the room. Once he turned around, I informed him "There's going to be a duel between Chazz and one of the new students in my year, Reggie… Crowler told me when I was in his office earlier… want to go see it later? And on that note, Kyle, did you want to go see it?"

True, I lied about how I knew about it, but it spared me having to comment on how I knew Chazz.

"Why'd you ask me second?!" Kyle then asked annoyed "You've known me longer!" he then protested.

"Firstly, not much longer, the time of the flight over… just saying. Secondly, because he was leaving, so if I'd asked you first, I wouldn't have gotten the chance to ask him…" I then retorted to Kyle's rather childish statement.

"Hmm… if I finish my calculations before the match, perhaps. But in the meantime, I must attend to it… Hopefully I will see you there!" Bastion then told the two of us before going back toward his room.

That guy really IS dedicated to his math studies…

"…anyway, Kyle…" I then resumed "…did you want to go see it, or no?"

"Well, I really ought to check my schedule, I'm really quite busy…" Kyle started to say with a mock snide tone, miming scanning through his new PDA, before nodding "I suppose I can…"

"Keep that up, and you might fit in with Reg and his buddies…" I then told him with a slight smirk.

"Yeah, no. Don't wanna do that… but I did promise I would call home when I got the chance… so I'll talk to you later, Marcus!" Kyle then stated before rushing out of the room, though I could swear I heard him think aloud "Now where were the phones again…?"

Once the other two had finally left the room again, I closed the door again behind me, to give myself the chance to think about what was going on.

Because, as nice as it was I would get to spend SOME time here, I really needed to think about how I was going to get home from here… I may have gotten here by happenstance, but it DEFINITELY wouldn't be as simple the other way around…

There was, really, only one way that immediately sprung to mind, and unfortunately, it required a lot of patience: I would have to find my benefactor, the one who had helped me get into this situation, most likely by playing along with whatever little game they had in mind, and once I knew who they were, use whatever method necessary to get them to help me get home…

Until then, however, there wasn't really much I could do beyond consider who they might be… It would have to be someone influential enough to bend the rules and get me into Duel Academy…

Kaiba?

Probably not. He wouldn't have a motive… though my benefactor might have manipulated Kaiba somehow…

Sheppard wasn't even here, so it was doubtful he would…

Perhaps, on the other hand, it was someone who knew I was coming?

Sartorius?

He was, so far, my lead suspect. He had motive, in serving the Light of Destruction, and the capability, in having the ability of foresight to know exactly when I was coming…

The only problem was that light wall… that could have been the Light of Destruction… and it wouldn't have been trying to kill me if it wanted me there… Not to mention the fact that I'd never willingly help him…

Perhaps it wasn't simply prediction, but execution, whoever it was being the one that BROUGHT me here, as opposed to simply knowing it, before manipulating the structure themselves…

Rubbing my temples, I shook my head as it was starting to hurt my brain attempting to ponder through such supernatural concepts for my own sake… because there was no real reason anyone would want me here THAT badly… at least, none that I could see…

There was quite an impressive view from my window: the endless seascape leading out to the horizon just past the cliff, and the lightly-clouded blue expanse of sky above it, I decided to optimize the deck I had come up with. I hadn't had long to come up with the deck I'd used in the exam, and that was only based on the first cards I found that conformed to the timeline rules, so I still had to fix it. Since I had enough time to dig through the box for anything that might work more effectively, I set about doing just that.

I'll admit, after all the strange happenings that had led to my arrival here, I rather enjoyed the mundane simplicity of deck-building in comparative silence. I also inserted a fun extra card which was more of a laugh than anything else, but might come in handy for that final push.

Not long after I finished, I heard a knock at the door "Marcus? Marcus, the match is going to start soon, we should get going if you wish to get a decent seat…" It wasn't Kyle, who I expected to show up first, but Bastion.

Going over to the door after inserting my new deck into the deck box which I'd rigged to fit into my belt, I opened the door to see him standing there. I've got to admit, even though I'd met him before, it still unsettled my sense of reality to see someone I'd considered a fiction just standing there talking to me. "Figured out your equation, then?" I asked him, curious now to see if he'd made the progress he wanted.

"If I hadn't, I wouldn't be talking to you yet…" he then responded matter-of-factly. It made sense, but he seemed to grating without intending to, something I well understood. "I will thank you for informing me, though. I was able to adequately inform my friends about the match, and they wished to watch with us as well… assuming that is all right with you…"

I had the feeling that if I didn't want that, he'd end up going with them anyway, as between his friends of more than a year and a near-brush with both death and cataclysm, and two relative strangers he'd never met before today, there really wasn't any choice at all. "That's all right, Bastion. I would like to meet more people while I'm here, anyway… just need Kyle to get out here…"

"He was right behind me a moment ago…" Bastion commented, before turning back toward the hall leading to his room.

"It's okay! I'm here! I'm here!" Kyle then shouted, rushing back out into the hallway. "I just wanted to finish up with my computer! It's supposed to be updating while I'm gone!"

"Not a problem, bud." I informed him, in an attempt to sound reassuring. "Bastion was just about to introduce us to his friends, I think… or are we meeting them there?" I informed Kyle before asking Bastion the situation.

"Oh, no, they're right outside. We might need to get moving though, or Jaden will get impatient and head there anyway… a little impetuous, that one…" leading to an involuntary nod of agreement from me.

Wow… the proctor was right, I need to work on my poker face…

Luckily, though, he didn't comment on it, so the three of us went out to meet Bastion's friends, while I attempted to act surprised at the group we met just outside.

Jaden… Syrus… Alexis… and Chazz is dueling, so he's probably there already…

"Good afternoon, everyone. These are two new friends I met today from the new first-year students. Kyle Stettin, and Marcus Kolstet. Kyle, Marcus, this is Jaden Yuki…" leading to an excited "Heya!" from Jaden, before Bastion resumed "…Syrus Truesdale…" getting a light wave and a "Hey." from Syrus.

So Syrus is still a red at the moment… that won't last long… though I couldn't tell HIM that…

"…and Alexis Rhodes…" Bastion then gestured to Alexis.

"Hello. Welcome to Duel Academy!" Alexis chimed pleasantly, clearly trying to be the encouraging upperclassman, or woman in this case. I was having a hard time looking at her at the moment, as I suddenly understood why seemingly every guy to step into this academy at least developed a crush on this girl. Lovely didn't seem to cover it, the word I was looking for to describe her eluding me at the moment. Her skirt, only about three times the width of her BELT, certainly didn't help things.

 _Eyes up… Eyes up…_

Once Jaden started to speak again, I quickly turned to him, if only to keep my current expression calm "Yeah! I'm certain you guys are going to like it here!"

"Greetings." I started casually, looking over the group again, "As he said, I'm Marcus Kolstet. Thank you for your gracious welcome. I look forward to dueling each and every one of you at some point later…" I then told them, unable to come up with anything better at the moment, as I was still having trouble containing my excitement at meeting all of them.

"Oh, you're on!" Jaden declared enthusiastically.

"Hey, you two, don't get carried away. We're still going to watch Chazz's duel." Alexis then interjected. I'd actually been wondering when someone would be the voice of reason.

"Right, right! But later, we'll definitely be getting our game on!" Jaden then ceded, while still declaring intent to duel at the same time.

I barely managed to keep myself from cringing at that phrase. It was still so strange to actually hear him say that aloud.

"Just gonna say, if we don't get moving, we won't be able to sit together!" Kyle informed nervously, Syrus nodding in agreement.

"Yeah, let's get going!" Syrus affirmed, the group now starting to get moving, walking toward the main building, and our goal of the arena complex.

Once we stepped into the arena building, I hadn't expected to see much of a crowd built up yet, but wow! The place was almost completely packed right now! I didn't even think there were this many students at the academy IN TOTAL!

As we looked around, I commented "Let me know if you spot an open section…" trying to find one. However, it surprisingly only took a moment before Jaden pointed to a section "Hey! Over there!" the rest of us then following him quickly through the building and into the section of stands where there had been a big enough gap for at least half of us to get into one row of seats, Alexis, Jaden and Syrus ending up a row up, where Alexis' normal cohorts… what were their names again…? Mindy and Jasmine, I'm pretty sure… had been sitting when we showed up.

However, at the moment, it wasn't really practical to do introductions over the ambient noise of the arena crowd waiting for the match to begin.

You know, something about know how the match was going to end already took something away from the anticipation, but I looked rather forward to watching Chazz take Reggie down a peg or two.

Not really willing to take part in conversation that required me to shout over the din, I remained rather quiet, merely looking down at the arena, though I did notice Mindy and Jasmine glance back at our row to see Kyle and myself, likely curious about the new people. I couldn't catch what they said after that, but I could swear I heard them giggling about something after that…

This whole thing was somewhat strange, as seeing these people in person had a completely different impact from just seeing them through a screen. If I wasn't careful, I'd become completely sidetracked from what I had to do by attempting to get a date or something of that sort...

Thankfully, I was spared further thoughts about this by the fact that Chazz and Reggie were now on the arena floor, and the duel had finally begun.

Over the course of the duel, I tried my best to remain detached, even as shockwaves from various attacks were sweeping over the audience, pushing me back into my chair more than once, though, as the duel wound down to an end… something seemed… off…

Did their duel actually end that quickly…? I could have sworn Reggie at least had Chazz on the ropes for part of the duel… but, despite Chazz lecturing him on the nature of his elitism, Chazz utterly crushed him despite a weak attempt at a counterattack… that surprise actually left a bad taste in my mouth in regard to how anticlimactic that duel was…

Though, it seemed I was the only one to get this impression, as Jaden and Syrus had rushed the field, along with most of slifer red, whilst the rest of the audience had begun shouting 'Chazz it up!', which had done it for me, and I couldn't contain myself from breaking out laughing at how absurd it sounded.

So much for keeping myself controlled…

"Are you all right?" Bastion then managed to ask over the noise of the event.

"Y-yeah…" I managed to get out, still chuckling a bit about it myself "…it's just… a bit ridiculous… isn't it?" shaking my head somewhat, as I seemed to be the only one not taking things seriously at the moment, the way people were speaking here taking away a great deal of tension that I had been feeling up until now.

"It is a tad unusual, I'll grant you, but it is something that Chazz takes very seriously, so you may wish to keep such opinions to yourself when speaking to him… just a word of advice." Bastion then informed me, not really looking as amused as I was.

Then again, Chazz didn't look that amused, either, as he was currently being hefted into the air by the reds.

All's well that ends well, I suppose… but it still didn't make that much sense…

Starting to leave without saying anything to anyone else, I found the sun was already starting to set as I left the building, casting an orange hue over everything outside.

"Hey! Wait a minute! Get back here…!" a voice then called out from behind me. Turning to identify the source, I saw Jaden rushing out of the building to catch up to me. "…where ya going, newbie? You still owe me a duel!"

I couldn't help but chuckle a bit at the fact that he was ALREADY up for it. Perhaps I wasn't the only one that was quite content with the results of the last duel…

"Really? I would have thought you'd be celebrating with the rest of the reds over Chazz's victory… Left early to beat the exit congestion…" I then informed him. I regularly did my best to avoid being in crowded places like narrow hallways after big events, foot traffic could be as bad as the roads in some places…

"Well, I might have been… but I never turn down a challenge…" Jaden then declared, activating his duel disk "…so let's throw down!"

Still not quite used to Jaden's verbiage, I couldn't help but smile a bit at this "All right then, let's do this!" opening the bag I brought with me to reveal I'd been carrying my duel disk as well, activating it and getting ready for the duel.

"Game on!" we both got out at the same time. **(My LP: 4000 / Jaden LP: 4000)**

"All right, let's see what you've got, Marcus!" Jaden then stated encouragingly.

"Very well then. I draw!" Remembering to take my first draw, I looked over my hand. This wasn't good. I was used to going second, having geared the deck heavily toward offence. But, there was something I could do right now… there was always an option. "I'm going to set a monster face-down, then set one card face-down. Your move."

"Hmm… kinda plain opening, but not bad, I guess. I'll draw! I'll open with **Elemental Hero Burstinatrix**!" **(ATK: 1200)**

 _Really…? He actually does summon the low attack heroes…? I must have forgotten that… then again, he actually does things with them…_

"…now I'm going to have her attack your face-down monster! Burst strike!" now Burstinatrix sent a volley of fireballs at my face-down Ryko.

"You destroyed my **Ryko, Lightsworn Hunter** , but your attack activated its effect! I send three cards from the top of my deck to my graveyard, and I can destroy one card on your side of the field…" now looking at the three cards I sent: **Lumina, Lightsworn Summoner** , **Heavy Storm** , and **Garoth, Lightsworn Warrior** , before declaring "…and now I destroy your Burstinatrix!" before watching an explosion remove Burstinatrix from the field.

"…tricky monster… but… your deck works by throwing your top cards away…?" Jaden then asked, sounding a little surprised. "…why would you disrespect your cards like that?"

Shaking my head a little, I replied "You don't quite get it, Jaden… even in my graveyard, my monsters support my deck's goal… I'm going to give you a spoiler… there are even some monsters in my deck that can only be played once I have certain things in my graveyard… so you see… I'm not really throwing them away… I'm bringing them into my plan in a different way…"

"Oh… um… all right… I guess… I'll throw down two face-downs, and call it a turn…" Jaden concluded, not sounding convinced by what I told him, but ending his turn nonetheless.

"So THIS is where they went!" Syrus declared, making his way out to where Jaden and I were duelling.

"Just finished watching a duel, but couldn't keep from starting up? So like Jaden…" Alexis observed.

"Before the end of your turn, Jaden, I will activate my face-down card! **Royal Decree**! This trap card is essentially Jinzo's effect… while it is face-up on the field, all other trap cards are negated!" I then informed him. "Now it's my turn! I draw! I activate the spell card **Solar Recharge**! By discarding **Lyla, Lightsworn Sorceress** , I draw two more cards, then send two cards from the top of my deck to the graveyard!"

"Why not just play Pot of Greed?" Kyle asked, sounding confused.

"Because it allows him to cycle through more cards than just the ones he drew… the other two cards that go to the graveyard…" Bastion replied.

"So just play Graceful Charity then…" Chazz inputted, annoyed.

"Oh, I do." I retorted. "Not enough, though…" I commented, before looking at the cards I milled. "Now, since I milled **Wulf, Lightsworn Beast** , its effect allows me to summon it to the field!" **(ATK: 2100)** The beast now appearing in front of me, before I stated "But it shall not stay on my field for long, as I tribute Wulf in order to summon **Gragonith, Lightsworn Dragon**!" **(ATK: 2300)** The large, white dragon now appearing in front of me. "Now, allow me to tell you what it does. For every lightsworn monster in my graveyard with a different name, Gragonith gains 300 attack and defence points! I have Lumina, Lyla, Ryko, Garoth, and Wulf in my graveyard, so my dragon gains 1500 points! **(ATK: 2300 - 3800)**

"Whoa! Now that's a nasty dragon!" Kyle responded, shocked by what I'd managed to get onto the field.

If only he knew what else I had in my hand… looking down at the 'Judgement Dragon' in my hand, I pondered whether or not I should use it in this duel… not yet… I had the feeling I shouldn't just yet.

Either way…

"Gragonith! Attack Jaden directly!" I declared, sending my dragon to hit Jaden. I half-expected him to suddenly flip up a spell card just in the nick of time, but he didn't move to do anything, before getting blasted by a burst of light that Gragonith charged up from its mouth. **(Jaden LP: 4000 – 200)**

"Whoa! Jaden's just about out from one hit!" Kyle declared.

"Hey… if there's one thing I've learned…" Alexis started "…it's NEVER count Jaden out…"

 _Ain't that the truth?_

"I now end my turn. At the end of my turn, Gragonith requires me to send three more cards from the top of my deck to the graveyard…" sending more cards to the graveyard, but not getting any new lightsworns, merely more of the same monsters, leaving my dragon at its impressive 3800.

"You know…" Jaden started. "As impressive as your monster is… you made a very important mistake… you left yourself without any other kind of protection! I draw! Now, I activate the spell card **Pot of Greed**! This allows me to draw two more cards!"

As I tried not to laugh while he explained pot of greed to me, he continued his turn. Now I activate the spell card polymerization! Fusing the Sparkman and Clayman in my hand to summon **Elemental Hero Thunder Giant!** " **(ATK: 2400)**

 _Well, there goes my dragon…_

"Your dragon's pretty cool, but you haven't won yet! I activate the effect of my Thunder Giant! By discarding the H-Heated Heart from my hand, I can destroy a monster whose original attack is lower than his! Since your dragon started at 2300, you know what that means!" now watching the thunder burst shatter my dragon. "…after that, I normal summon **Elemental Hero Ocean!** " **(ATK: 1500)**

 _Wait… Ocean…?!_

Looking across at the bident-wielding aquatic hero, I started to wonder just what was going on here. I knew what it was, but I'd never seen this version of Jaden actually make use of it! I was starting to think I'd be able to predict my opponents, but with a single card, Jaden just showed me that was not going to be the case.

"Now… you're gonna have to learn the hard way! Ocean, you're up first!" The bident-wielding hero now throwing its weapon at me, the hologram passing through me, surprisingly not the painful sensation I'd initially expected. **(My LP: 4000 – 2500)** "Now, Thunder Giant! Attack next!" **(My LP: 2500 – 100)**

"Well, I'll let you go now…" Jaden then told me.

We were fairly close in terms of life points: 200 to 100, but he gave me a target to actually beat him with that ocean. As long as I can draw one other monster…

"My turn! I'll draw!" looking at the card now, I heaved a deep sigh, not sure what I should do.

I could easily win if I summoned Judgment Dragon, even without use of its monster effect… But I still didn't want to show off my ace monster… yet…

"I'll summon **Jain, Lightsworn Paladin**!" **(ATK: 1800)** "…now! Jain! Attack his Elemental Hero Ocean! When she attacks, Jain gains an extra 300 attack points!" **(ATK: 1800 – 2100)**

"He's got this!" Kyle declared.

"Not yet!" Jaden reacted, revealing his face-down card "I activate emergency provisions! Now, by sacrificing my other face-down card, I gain 1000 life points!" (Jaden LP: 200 – 1200)

"But now, Jain still destroys your monster." I then reminded him, Jain cutting ocean in half. **(Jaden LP: 1200 – 600)**

"But now his Jain's just going to get destroyed by Jaden's Thunder Giant next turn!" Chazz thought aloud. "This freshman's toast…"

 _Wow, they sure do like their commentary…_

"Actually, Chazz… there isn't going to be a next turn… sorry Jaden, that I'm ending the duel like this, but I now activate the spell card **Tremendous Fire**!"

"Wait, what!?" Chazz then looked at me like I was nuts, the rest of the group on the side looking outright shocked.

Then again, Jaden had the same expression on his face: utter shock "Wait, doesn't that deal damage to BOTH of us!?"

"Yeah… it does… Tremendous Fire deals 1000 damage to your life points, while at the same time dealing 500 damage to mine… I included it today on a whim, actually… didn't think I'd need to use it like this…" chuckling a bit, I then smiled across at him as the field caught fire, both of our life points reducing at the same time. **(Jaden LP: 600 – 0) (My LP: 100 – 0)**

From their perspective, THIS probably would have been the anticlimactic duel, though to me, I thought it was epic. "That was a great duel, Jaden!" I declared. "…but trust me, next time, I'll be winning outright!"

"You're on! You've got game, Marcus! You just gotta learn to defend yourself a little better…" he stated, in an obvious attempt to be encouraging, though not saying anything I hadn't already considered.

Turning and leaving the area, I heard Kyle and Bastion catch up to me "That… could have gone better…" Bastion started, rubbing the back of his head "…I wouldn't have thought you to be such an impulsive duelist…"

"No." I replied. "…that duel went fine… though he was right about one thing, I've got to include some kind of protection cards to keep myself from getting destroyed should I lose my immediate monsters… and I've got a couple ideas of how to fix that…"

Kyle then spoke next "Why did you include a card like that in your deck, anyway?" looking a little confused by my last play.

"Well, considering the fact that each player starts with 4000 life points, I figured any card that just cuts a quarter of your opponent's life points might be handy…" I explained.

 _Though a card that would completely finish them with a direct attack from Judgment Dragon is worth a look, I think…_

"That is certainly something, but such a strategy is hardly something I would recommend…" Bastion said, sounding rather uneasy with the way I planned out my duels.

"Yeah, I know it's impulsive… but it's just the way I've always duelled… either way… have a good night, guys… I'm headed to bed…" politely taking my leave once we got to the dorm building.

 _Unexpected duel results… widened card pools… supernatural conspiracy…_

It seemed things here were going to be far more interesting than I'd initially expected…


	3. Chapter 3 - Knight's Challenge

_This definitely isn't good…_

 _Standing at the end of the dock, my back to the sea, which was more just a wall of black, as it was the dead of night. Currently the only illumination was being provided by a bright golden glow coming from behind the individual at the end of the dock._

" _How utterly pathetic! To think you would actually believe someone as sublime as myself would deign to use something as lowly as playing cards!" a sharp, snide voice sneered at me from the other end of the dock, before a deathly rattle came from the other end of the dock, with me barely able to sidestep the incoming projectile, lobbed from one of the points of light behind him._

" _Come now, fool! Surely there is some merit to that trinket and your papers? Attempt to stop me ending you…" now additional points of light appearing behind him as the man's mocking tone turned in an obnoxious laugh._

 _Drawing through every card I had in a desperate attempt to find something to stop him with, all I could do was look back up. Suddenly, he was gone, now back at the top of the cliffside, a bright red glowing energy now in his hand "Very well. Then die…" was all I heard before a blast of red light surged toward me, consuming the entirety of the dock on its way to strike me down…_

* * *

…before I snapped awake with a start. Returning to alertness, I looked around the room, heaving a sigh "A bit heavy-handed…" I thought aloud "…but yeah, that's a thing…"

 _Well… that's going to be on my mind all day…_

Over the course of the rest of the day, I found my brain wandering back to the slowly-fading details of the dream I had.

"Something amiss, Marcus? You've been off-balance all day…" Bastion asked, the two of us currently playing 1v1 solitaire at a large table in the Yellow Dorm building, after today's classes were done.

Yeah…

"Bastion… perhaps I'm off-focus because you're trying to get me to play competitive _solitaire_ …" I grumbled, annoyed by the prospect. "What exactly is the point of this?"

"Come now, Marcus, I thought you, most of all, would understand the value of such an exercise…" Bastion then responded, sounding disappointed, "…the competitive effort is essential! It is meant to encourage both players' reflexes, as well as high-speed analysis of cards drawn, cards revealed, and maneuvering those already on the field in order to accomplish the goal of getting all the cards to where you need them to be… as I said, the competitive effort encourages high-speed play. You aren't exactly able to take ALL the time you need in a duel, particularly the timed duel puzzles required during examinations…"

"Okay, okay… I get it!" I answered, exasperated. "I'll try to take this a little more seriously, since it helps to train essential skills for duelling…"

"Both mental and physical, yes… at least in terms of duelling…" Bastion nodded along, continuing along with moving his cards around at an astounding pace.

"…true enough…" I replied, continuing to try to keep up to no avail. "…hey, Bastion… have you ever had a dream that's stuck with you through the entire day afterward?"

"Oh? A dream? One that sticks with you? Yes, I have… though usually it comes during an exam week, typically if I had been up all night the night before…" Bastion commented, before looking up at me, having stopped playing solitaire for the first time since we began. "Why? Is that what's been distracting you?"

Nodding along, I explained "Well, it was a rather strange one… the details are fuzzy this late in the day… But coming against some kind of invincible force, nothing to defend myself with, and the dream ends with me getting annihilated by some kind red wave of death…"

"Hmm… well, I'm not exactly a psychologist, but it sounds like you're overstressed… From the sound of it… you may be overwhelmed by what is happening to you lately…" Bastion suggested with a shrug.

You know, for 'not being a psychologist', Bastion is actually quite insightful…

"That's a fair assessment…" I ceded. "…there's just so much happening lately… having to adjust to this place… and the change of scenario… it feels… almost alien…" I then continued, now sifting through my available cards again. "Oh… I'm out of moves…" I commented, gesturing to my side of the table.

This entire thing was strange: opening up on my thought process to someone who mere days ago I would have discounted as non-existent. Then again, he WAS pretty much the best one to talk to, as I wouldn't have really felt comfortable going to someone who didn't put such things through a prism of logic to gleam some actual useful information out of it. Jaden wouldn't get it, his outlook was too sunny to understand such things, or, at least, that was my impression, Kyle and Syrus were both likely to be sympathetic, but I didn't want to find sympathy right now…

Funny thing was, the one whose character was typically neglected the most was the one I found the most rapport with on this island.

"Most unfortunate. That seems like a good place to call our training session, then…" Bastion then stated, collecting his side back into its deck, before I did the same. "You know, Marcus… you are a rather strange freshman…" he then stated, seemingly out of the blue.

"Why, thank you." I responded with a smirk. "…though, I'm not sure what led you to that…" I then admitted once the joke was done, rubbing the back of my head.

"Well…" Bastion started "You see… by my experience, there are two main kinds of Ra Yellow freshmen… the kind that are just glad to not have ended up in red… and the kind that are planning for promotion to blue as soon as they begin… yet you have done neither… you seem oddly… content with your position, in a different way from those first kinds of students…" he observed.

"Yeah…" I started to reply. "…I might just be part of that first group…" I then stated honestly.

"No… I've met students like that… take our friend Kyle for example… he is part of that first group… that group is mostly scared of being demoted to red at any point if they fail in any way…" Bastion then explained to me.

Again, very perceptive… I didn't want to have to explain what I knew about the blue dorm, but I felt no incentive to try for a promotion at this point… hell, before too long, there won't BE a blue dorm to get promoted to… and I have no intention of wearing that white getup…

"I see…" I responded. "…well, I guess I'm fine where I am… don't really want to move up to blue… too much pressure to maintain that sort of thing… but I can't think of anything that would cause me demotion… while we're on this subject…" I then started to redirect his question. "Which of those are you, Bastion?"

No surprise showing in his expression, Bastion told me "At first, the second one. When I first arrived here, I planned to be promoted to blue at the first opportunity… but then I decided I would not want that promotion until I had truly earned it… until I was the best duelist of our year…" his expression had seemed to change: perhaps re-iterating his old motivations had stirred his initial drive for success that he'd had before he was sidelined by the events of last year… "…but alas, that is something I cannot be… as not merely our year's best duelist, but the academy's best duelist lounges in Slifer Red…"

Giving a slight shrug, Bastion then continued "It has convinced me that the classification system is entirely futile… if the best duelist in the school can be in red, then such petty distinctions are not worth languishing over… and so I found the happy medium you find me in today… that you seemed to discover far sooner than I did…"

 _Nice speech, Bastion, but my discovering that medium has nothing to do with student rankings or stressing over housing options… I just know what's about to happen to that dorm building…_

"It would seem that way… I'll talk to you later, Bastion, I've got a couple things to think about for a bit… Nice talking to you…" I then told him, starting away from the table.

"Enjoy your thinking time, then…" Bastion then stated before I left the building.

Leaving the Ra dorm building, I started across the cliff line, only a couple of meters from the ledge, thinking about what I'd actually heard earlier that day between classes:

" _So, I heard Crowler was pretty pissed about having to teach our morning class… despite being Chancellor, he still had to sub in…" a nearby student had commented._

" _Why is that? Was everyone else too busy or something…?" his friend responded._

" _Actually, that's exactly what It was… morning period, practically everyone is teaching SOMETHING except him… apparently Mr. Schmitt came down with some kind of migraine or something… pretty sudden, too… might be out for a couple of days…" he then explained to the second student._

 _Schmitt…? Wasn't he the proctor I duelled during my exam? That sucks… pretty strict teacher, but I wouldn't wish anything on him like that…_

 _Well. I guess I could expect to have to listen to Crowler prattle on for a couple hours tomorrow morning…_

I wasn't sure why that kept coming back to me when I had a moment alone… perhaps it was the fact that any kind of sudden happening, no matter how seemingly innocuous it was, always seemed to result in SOMETHING around here…

Hell, something as simple as a love letter or a new staff member around here can be the start of something nefarious…

I hoped I wouldn't be looking under every rock on the island before the end of my time here…

Speaking of rocks…

In front of me now was a rather unexpected sight: a hologram mountain almost completely blocking my way forward.

 _Oh, so it's that time, is it? Time to go watch Jaden wipe out would-be brigand Hassleberry…_

Or, that's what I thought…

By the time I got into sight of the field, something very different greeted my eyes: SYRUS was duelling Hassleberry, Jaden watching at the side with Hassleberry's little band of supporters.

Wary of the river that ran between the two duelists, I made my way quietly to the bridge "So, what's the story here…?" I asked, trying to process the fact that something else had now changed.

This wasn't good… small details like this turning out differently weren't bad now, but every slight departure from the path makes room for a bigger alteration later…

"Well… we were bringing some duel disks across the island, when Syrus told me about this guy Bumbleberry stealing people's duel disks…" Jaden started to explain.

"It's HASSLEberry!" a shout from the muscle-bound Ra then affirmed.

"Right… anyway, Syrus lost once to him, but now he's trying to beat him to get his duel disk back…" Jaden continued, seeming unphased by his retort.

"I see…" I commented, getting a glimpse of how things were going. **(Syrus LP: 700 / Hassleberry LP: 4000)** "…hmm… doesn't look good…" I then mused.

"Well, you're right… but if I just gave up every time a duel didn't look good, I'd never win!" Jaden observed with a laugh.

"Boy's right though. You're gonna have to bring up a vehicle with more firepower than what you've been usin' to beat me!" Hassleberry then commented to Syrus.

"Oh, I know…" Syrus started, surprisingly serious all of a sudden. "You think you're the first one to run me down…? To tell me I'm weak? I used to hear it on a daily basis…" looking over his hand, he then looked back up at Hassleberry "But I've got the perfect thing to shut you up!"

"Whoa… what's up with Syrus…?" I asked to no one in particular, though I knew full-well what he was talking about. Someone who's been put down his whole life as a weakling is eventually going to get fed up with it… especially when they realize they're better than that…

"It's a long story…" Jaden commented, not saying anything more than that.

"I activate the spell card **Pot of Greed**! Now I draw two more cards!" Syrus then declared, drawing his new cards.

"All right, son, you've got plenty of ammunition, let's see you use some of it!" Hassleberry challenged, seeming relatively unfazed by Syrus' current hostility.

"I'm about to. You won't like it as much once I use it though…" Syrus stated simply, the emotion having dropped from his tone, having calmed down since his initial outburst with the certainty he was about to win.

 _Syrus has five cards in his hand now… he hasn't really used many of them… what does he have in mind…?_

"I'll start by summoning **Expressroid!** " **(ATK: 600)** Syrus then declared, bringing the monster to the field. "Its effect allows me to return two roid monsters from my graveyard to my hand! I'll return **Submarineroid** and **Steamroid** to my hand!"

"Get 'em back if you want. None of those toys is packing enough punch to beat my **Black Tyranno** , even without my field spell!" **(ATK: 2900)** Hassleberry commented on the situation, still seeming amused.

"You're right… first off, I'll use my spell card, **Mystical Space Typhoon** to destroy your field spell!" upon doing so, the field returned from the ancient jungle to the bridge by the river that they were duelling by. "I then activate the spell card **Power Bond**!" Syrus then declared, now sending three monsters from his hand to his graveyard. "This lets me fuse **Steamroid** , **Submarineroid** , and **Drillroid** in my hand in order to summon **Super Vehicroid Jumbo Drill**!" **(ATK: 3000)**

"Hmm… looks like you finally brought some armour to the battlefield! About time I got a challenge out of ya!" Hassleberry declared.

"Oh? If you liked that, wait till you see what power bond did for it… it comes in with its attack score doubled!" **(ATK: 3000 – 6000)** Syrus then informed him.

"SIX THOUSAND attack points!?" He then responded incredulously. Looks like he had to learn the hard way that machine decks could get some downright terrifying attack power totals… the result of having more than one 'take this attack and multiply by 2' effects…

Speaking of which…

"But I'm not done yet! I activate the spell card **Limiter Removal!** Again doubling my machine-type monsters' attack points!" **(Jumbo Drill ATK: 6000 – 12,000) (Expressroid ATK: 400 – 800)** That's right! Now! Jumbo Drill, attack his Black Tyranno!" the large drill monster plowing clean through the Tyrannosaur and passing through Hassleberry. **(Hassleberry LP: 4000 –0)**

All I could do was nod along approvingly at the fact that Syrus had just won that duel, despite the fact I was certain it should have been Jaden dueling…

That ought to make for an interesting turn of events. I wonder if he'll still end up gravitating toward them in an effort to improve himself…

My question seemed to be answered rather quickly "Looks like I owe you an apology, son… that, and those duel disks I promised ya…" Hassleberry commented, seeming to take his loss in stride. "…but don't expect it to be so easy when we duel again to even the score!" he declared, now smiling.

"Oh. I'll be ready, Hassleberry!" Syrus then told him, his animosity seeming to fade surprisingly quickly.

 _Perhaps because Hassleberry's not looking down at him anymore… but across at a rival…_

"Well, all's well that ends well, I suppose…" I couldn't help but comment, before turning on my heel. "With that, I bid you lot adieu, I've still got some ground to cover on my travels…" with an overdramatic, sweeping bow.

"Well, see ya later, Marcus!" Jaden then called to me as I left.

"Wait, Marcus was here?" I could dimly hear Syrus ask, evidently not having noticed me show up, his focus on the duel at hand.

Resuming my trip across the island, until I eventually found myself at a rocky cliff base, sitting on a rock and looking out at the ocean, just getting some thinking time in as I looked out at the water.

 _Okay… new points… Chazz crushed Reggie without giving him a chance… that probably didn't alter much…_

 _Syrus duels Hassleberry and gets him to stop what he was doing… will probably still have the same net result, honestly, except perhaps an even more direct competition between the two of them, rather than Jaden being the point of contention… still nothing serious there…_

 _Only problem is, if things keep altering like that… I might be in for a much harder time getting through this than I initially thought… why are things going askew? I haven't really done anything of note…_

"I was wondering when I'd run into you again…" a voice then shook me out of my thoughts, carrying even over the sound of the waves.

Rising to my feet, I looked to see who it was. "Umm… hello…" I started.

It was the strange girl from the hall before…

' _Are they right about you…?'_

That question still rang in my head a bit…

"I was hoping to get a chance to see you when I wasn't busy…" the white-haired girl commented. "Oh, but where are my manners…? My name is Miranda… Miranda Hastings…"

"Oh, right… well, Miranda, my name is…" I started to reply, but got cut off just before I could introduce myself.

"Marcus Kolstet." She finished for me. "You duelled Mr. Schmitt at the entrance exams… you also duelled Jaden Yuki the night you arrived here… Since then, you haven't taken part in an official duel…"

Tilting my head slightly, I asked "…ummm, did I do something that made you want to study me or something…?"

Well… that came out wrong…

Not that she's bad-looking: she's quite trim, it was clear she took care of herself… she also seemed to have the same persistence as Alexis in wearing a skirt that looked the right size for a scarf… are those just part of the girls' uniform or something…?

Seriously, who designed that?

However, this situation was a bit strange, as I'd never actually spoken to her before now, and she seemed to already know me…

"You're also a poor duelist who wouldn't last five turns against a proper opponent…" Miranda then declared bluntly, not even bothering to answer my question directly.

"Care to repeat that…?" I started, feeling this girl starting to raise my ire for no apparent reason.

"You are an improper duelist who doesn't feel bound by the rules of the game like everyone else is… which is why you play without defences…" she elaborated, sounding as if she were looking down her nose at me.

"No, I play without defences because they're unnecessary if I keep the opponent continuously on the defensive themselves…" I retorted, shaking my head a bit at her attitude.

"Oh? Perhaps you would like to try and prove your theory…" She goaded, now raising the duel disk she had just put on.

"So you came out here, creeped me out and pissed me off just to challenge me to a card game…?" I summarized in confusion.

Just who WAS this girl…?

"That is the concise version, if you want to consider it like that…" she affirmed while I activated the duel disk I had brought with me.

Seriously, never want to leave the dorm without this thing…

"All right then… Game on!" I declared after shuffling my deck.

"Not saying that." Miranda countered as she drew her hand. **(My LP: 4000 / Miranda LP: 4000)**

"Since you seem to think so poorly of me, why don't you show me how it's done?" I challenged her.

"Very well. I draw! Now I shall summon **Forge Knight Level 3** in attack mode! I also equip him with my **Hard Light Shield** equip spell!" **(ATK: 1250)** An unarmored man with a black bodysuit and a hammer standing across from me now.

 _Forge Knight…? What is that…?_

"Interesting monster… but a little on the weak side, isn't it?" I commented. Then again, I felt anything with less than 1700 attack was 'on the weak side', so my view was a little skewed.

"If it is so weak, try destroying it… I set two cards face-down and end my turn." Miranda finished simply.

"All right then, I draw!" I declared, before looking over my hand.

 _She's goading me into attacking her… she wants me on the offensive to prove me wrong…_

 _Her mistake._

"I summon **Jain, Lightsworn Paladin** in attack mode!" **(ATK: 1800)** I then informed her, a much more heavily-armoured knight appearing on my side of the field. Looking over the rest of my hand, I sighed a bit. "All right! Jain, attack her Forge Knight! Jain's effect now activates! When she attacks a monster, she gains 300 extra attack points!" **(ATK: 1800 – 2100)**

"How utterly predictable. I activate the trap card **Compulsory Evacuation Device**! This card now simply returns your Jain to your hand!" she chided, as I had to bring Jain back to my hand. "…anything else?" she asked, amused.

"I set a card face-down and end my turn…" I responded, irritated.

"Incorrect! I now activate my other face-down card! **Mystical Space Typhoon**! Your Royal Decree won't be overriding MY defences." Now shattering what we both knew was my anti-trap trap card.

"It's my turn again! I draw! Now, during my standby phase, if Forge Knight Level 3 is equipped with an equip spell, I can tribute him to special summon **Forge Knight Level 6** from my hand or deck!" **(ATK: 1750)** The unarmored smith now being replaced by man with plate armour on his limbs, though with a relatively unprotected center, wielding what appeared to be a sledgehammer.

"All right then… interesting monsters you've got…" I observed, curious what this monster did.

"Indeed. Now I activate his effect! When he is summoned, I can take an equip spell from my graveyard, and add it to my hand! I return **Hard Light Shield** from my graveyard to my hand! Which I now equip him with! This activates another part of his effect, increasing his attack points by 400!" **(ATK: 1750 – 2150)** Miranda then explained his effect. "After that, I equip him with the equip spell Adamant Edge – Twin Blades! These increase his attack points by 500! In addition to the 400 he gains from his effect!" **(ATK: 2150 – 3050)**

"Now, since you have no defences whatsoever, I have no qualms about attacking you directly! Forge Knight! Attack!" the sudden oncoming force of her forge knight striking me with its twin swords hit me harder than I thought it would, almost knocking me off of the rock I was standing on. **(My LP: 4000 – 950)**

"You know… You're not the first one to tell me that… and eventually, I do actually get the message… but I get it my way…" I informed her. "I activate the effect of the **Gorz the Emissary of Darkness** in my hand! If I take damage while I control no cards on my field, I can special summon him from my hand, and then apply a different effect based on the type of damage! Emerge, Gorz!" **(ATK: 2700)**

"Now it looks like YOUR monster is on the weaker side…" she commented, seeming to tease me at this point.

"…be that as it may, the battle damage effect of Gorz now summons an Emissary of Darkness token with attack and defence equal to the damage I just took!" **(ATK: 3050)**

"Even that seems a poor defence, though…" she then chided me. "What if I had another equip spell that brought him up to 4000? You would still have lost…"

"I have no way of knowing, but my defensive options are my own…" I responded to her. "I couldn't play to someone else's strategy properly any more than I could live someone else's life…" I then found myself admitting to her.

"Oh?" she reacted, sounding legitimately surprised for the first time since I started talking to her. "But they're cards, Marcus… anyone can play them any way they know how to…"

"I am aware of that, Miranda… but I've been around enough to know everyone thinks differently… give the both of us the exact same hand and deck, and we would both come to diverging thoughts on how to play it… that's where each player's skill and even instinct comes in… at least… that's how I think about it…" I continued to tell her.

"All right then… let's see how you play this, then… I end my turn." She declared.

I was surprised, I would have thought she'd at least have another face-down or something to play…

"All right! My turn! I draw!" looking over my hand a moment, I nodded a little. "I'll start with the spell card **Charge of the Light Brigade**! By sending the top 3 cards of my deck to the graveyard, I can add a level 4 or lower lightsworn monster from my deck to my hand…" now checking through my deck after milling the three cards, I revealed the card I was adding "I add **Lyla, Lightsworn Sorceress** from my deck to my hand, and then I will summon her to my field in attack mode!" **(ATK: 1700)** before the robed figure appeared on the field.

"All right… now I will use the effect of my Lyla, changing her to defence mode in order to destroy a spell or trap card on your side of the field! I destroy your Hard Light Shield!" Lyla now holding up her staff, the blast from which shifted her into a defensive stance and causing the purplish shield to shatter around him. "…as you know, that reduces your knight's attack by its previous increase… **(ATK: 3050 – 2650)** Now, my emissary of darkness token will attack your forge knight level 6!" my token monster now cutting through the knight's attempt to block its swing, destroying him. **(Miranda LP: 4000 – 3600)** "Now, Gorz, attack her directly!" Gorz now rushing over and striking her himself. **(Miranda LP: 3600 – 900)** "Now, at the end of my turn, Lyla's effect requires me to send three cards from the top of my deck to the graveyard… It's your move." I then invited her.

"Not bad, Marcus… but you've once again left yourself exposed… I draw! Now, during my standby phase, if I have no face-up spell cards on my side of the field, I can add **Adamant Edge – Twin Blades** from my graveyard to my hand!" Returning her equip spell that was lost previously. "Now I activate the spell card **Monster Reborn**! Allowing me to special summon **Forge Knight Level 6** from my graveyard! **(ATK: 1750)** His effect now again activates, allowing me to return **Hard Light Shield** from my graveyard to my hand! Now I activate the spell card **Level Up**! Tributing **Forge Knight Level 6** to special summon **Forge Knight Level 9** from my deck in attack mode!" **(ATK: 2250)** This new knight now fully armored, still wielding a similar-looking sledgehammer from the previous stage. "Now, I activate his effect, discarding **Adamant Edge – Twin Blades** to look through my deck for another equip spell, and add it to my hand! I add the equip spell **Phase Strike Halberd**! Then, I equip it to my knight, along with **Hard Light Shield**!" the knight now wielding a large, golden spear, and having the purple energy field appear around him again. "Now, with his higher level, **Forge Knight Level 9** gains 500 attack points per equip spell, rather than 400 previously…" **(ATK: 2250 – 3250)**

"Impressive knight…" I replied to her now, looking across it while running the numbers in my head. "But perhaps you should have kept those twin blades… you would have had enough attack to win the duel going over Gorz…" I observed.

"Ah, perhaps I should tell you the effect of my **Phase Strike Halberd** then… by cutting my monster's attack in half, he can bypass your monsters and attack you directly!" Miranda then informed me. **(ATK: 3250 – 1625)** "It was a nice duel Marcus, but it's over now… Forge Knight, attack!" the knight now seeming to become incorporeal for a moment, passing through my Gorz and charging toward me directly.

"Perhaps I should tell you the effect of my **Necro Gardna** …" I then informed her, now drawing a card out of my graveyard. "By banishing him from my graveyard, I can negate an attack from one of your monsters!"

"Banishing? Do you mean you're removing him from play?" she then asked, confused by my term.

 _Oh, right… not a thing yet…_

"Yes, that's exactly what I mean… I told you, I do have some ways to defend myself…" I then informed her.

As the attack was repulsed, she shook her head "That's not bad… but it doesn't mean you've won yet… I activate the second effect of my **Forge Knight Level 9**! By sending an equip spell equipped to him to my graveyard, I can destroy a monster on your side of the field, then deal 500 points of damage to your life points! I destroy your token!" watching as the knight now literally threw the phase spear at my gorz token, shattering it, and hitting me with the shockwave. **(My LP: 950 – 450)** "Unfortunately, I can only do so once per turn, so now I set a card face-down and let you go… please don't force a draw again…" she then poked at me.

Chuckling a little to myself, I responded "Heard about that too, did you? Don't worry about it… not playing that bit today… can only use tech cards like that every so often… I draw!" Looking over my hand, I nodded a little to myself. "Since you javelined that spear at my token, your Forge Knight lost 500 of its boosted points…" **(ATK: 3250 – 2750)**

"Doesn't matter right now… My knight is still the strongest monster on the field… and you can't use Lyla's effect again this turn…" She told me quite accurately.

Now, I was pondering what actual move to make. "You're right… Since Lyla used her effect last turn, I can't switch her back into attack mode this turn… So your spells are safe from her this turn… I activate the spell card **Solar Recharge**! I discard my Jain in order to draw two cards, then send a further two cards from my deck to the graveyard!" looking over my next two cards, I nodded to myself. "But you're not safe from everything! I tribute my Lyla to summon **Celestia, Lightsworn Angel**! (ATK: 2300) By her effect, if I tributed a lightsworn monster to summon her, I can send the top four cards of my deck to the graveyard, in order to destroy two cards on your side of the field! I target your face-down card and your **Hard Light Shield!"** Sending the four cards, I looked them over a moment…

 _Judgement Dragon…?_

"I'm afraid that's as far as you go! I activate trap card **Torrential Tribute**! By its effect, I destroy every monster on the field! Though, only your monsters will be going…" Miranda told me with a smirk.

"Wait… what?! Why not?" I asked her, surprised.

"By the effect of my **Hard Light Shield**! If the equipped monster were to be destroyed, I can pay 500 life points to stop the destruction!" **(Miranda LP: 900 – 400)**

"However… since you didn't actually negate her effect, your **Hard Light Shield** is still destroyed… so your Forge Knight loses its attack increase! **(ATK: 2750 – 2250)** Also, since I sent Wulf to the graveyard for her effect's cost, I can special summon it! Come forth, **Wulf, Lightsworn Beast**!" **(ATK: 2100)** Continuing to scan through my hand, I nodded along "All right… I think its time to wrap this up! I activate the equip spell card **Lightsworn Sabre**! Equipping it to Wulf, it gains 700 attack points! **(ATK: 2100 – 2800)** Wulf, attack her knight and end this duel!" now watching as my Wulf charged across the field, and cut down her forge knight. **(Miranda LP: 400 – 0)**

"So… did you figure out how my duelling works…?" I asked her curiously from across the rocks.

"Yes… you rely heavily on your luck from what you send to the graveyard via card effects to ensure you survive…" Miranda commented, not sounding amused or impressed at the moment.

"Incorrect…" I stated, shaking my head. "I use whatever card advantage I happen to gain from the cards I send to the graveyard to supplement my plays, forcing my opponent to give up advantage and use their resources until they lack defences, whereas my resources remain relatively available for me to push my advantage for the game…" I then explained to her. I was certain she already understood this, but I wanted to push past the initial irritation at losing. "…the real test is to see if I can do that before they must a counterattack strong enough to beat me…"

"Hmm… you… understand your strategic goals far better than I thought you would…" she admitted, though still not sounding pleased with my explanation of my strategy.

 _That had been my strategy since the beginning, since back a few years ago with my Chaos Dragon deck, so I understood what I was doing quite well..._

"Are you surprised by that?" I asked, actually curious now.

"I honestly just thought you were a mindless brute, simply plodding forward until either you or your opponent goes down… by the way…" she then stated to me. "What was that monster you stopped at when you were sending cards to the graveyard… you seemed to have a reaction…"

"Glad I could prove you wrong on that… I'd be happy to duel you again sometime… Miranda…" I then told her, in response to her initial thoughts, before shaking my head at her "Don't worry about that one, just something I didn't remember putting into my deck…" That much was actually true, I thought I'd left that one in my box today, since I didn't want it in the deck until I was willing to use it…

"O-oh… of course, Marcus…" Miranda then told me, looking rather… flustered? Something seemed to have her shaken up a little, and I didn't really know what it was.

"You all right…?" I found myself asking her before I could think about it.

"O-oh… f-fine… I-I'm gonna go now…" she stammered, before taking off from the cliffside.

 _Hmm… no girl's ever reacted like that to me or anything I've said… I wonder what it was that set her off like that…_

Shrugging a little to myself, I decided now was as good a time as any to make my way back to the dorm building…

* * *

The next day, as I was starting to leave the dorm building with Kyle and Bastion, I had been starting to ask "So do you guys know what ended up happening to-", before I noticed someone standing by the front of the Yellow Dorm building…

"Miranda?" I reacted aloud, more than a little surprised to see her there.

"Hey, Marcus… is it okay if I… go to class with you guys?" she asked, looking rather flustered at having to ask such things.

 _Umm… what's up with this reversal…!?_

* * *

 **Post-Story:**

 **Ah, most of the first steps are complete… the early pieces put into place… Don't worry, there's a reason for everything that happens, I promise. I am quite enjoying putting this story together, though the duels still feel to me, somewhat clunky…**


	4. Chapter 4 - Clash of Heroes

_Finally, a lead._

After roughly a week of nothing out of the ordinary happening, aside from the rather amusing spectacle of Syrus utterly DESTROYING that Missy girl that Crowler set him up to duel (he had won within the first two turns, I still can't really believe I watched that), I was beginning to think I'd NEVER find something to work toward getting myself home!

* * *

 _Fortunately, as the sequence of events goes, I heard about a duel that was going to be broadcast live, with all the spectacle of a football game or a bout of professional wrestling. It was certainly interesting to be reminded that dueling was considered a professional sport here._

" _All right, time for to watch the pros throw down!" Jaden declared enthusiastically. "This ought to be great!"_

" _You think Zane might lose?" Syrus pondered aloud._

" _Are you kidding me? That Aster guy couldn't even beat Jaden! He hasn't got a chance against Zane!" Chazz commented._

 _Oh, that's right…_

 _Aster came here before I arrived and duelled Jaden once before._

" _But he wasn't even using his own actual deck then." Jaden countered "I'm looking forward to seeing what his ACTUAL deck looks like!" he then continued with no loss of enthusiasm._

 _Oh, won't you be surprised?_

" _Who do you think's going to win, Marcus?" Kyle then asked me, as we and Miranda were currently sitting behind the rest of the group._

" _Yeah, I actually am kind of curious, who do you think'll win?" Miranda then added. "I never met this Zane guy, but I heard he was amazing at the game!"_

 _Why is she so enthused? When I first saw her, I would have sworn her face COULDN'T change expressions… Come to think of it, she's been, surprisingly, around a lot lately, which I'd found shocking after her initial attitude towards me._

" _Well, as far as I know, Zane's deck is quite powerful, but too oriented on raw attacking power. Strategically, I would give the edge to Aster if he is playing a more balanced style." I mused aloud._

" _Look whose talking, your deck is practically ALL offence…" Chazz countered._

" _What? You don't think he'll win?" Syrus asked, sounding surprised._

 _At first, I would have said I KNOW he won't win, but considering I didn't expect HIM to duel Hassleberry, I'm not quite sure WHAT to think…_

" _It's entirely possible for him to lose. I can't say anything specific without seeing either player's deck, though…" I trailed off at the end, knowing I had never personally seen Zane's deck, and a lot of unexpected things have happened already, so, in truth, nothing was certain at the moment._

" _Well, for someone who's never seen Zane in action before, I'd say you sound like you've made up your mind." Alexis concluded, though thankfully nothing further being said, as the announcer on the giant screen in the hall now announced the beginning of the duel._

 _All right here we go…_

* * *

 _I guess SOME things didn't change._

Watching the surprised looks on everyone else's faces had been quite funny to me: from Aster using the same elemental heroes as Jaden, to using far different fusion monsters, to the moment where Zane walked right into Aster's last trap card, I was watching the duel go down exactly as I had expected it to.

Perhaps it was too far off for my arrival to have affected it.

"W-what!? Zane lost?" Syrus reacted aloud, the rest of them joining in with their reactions of surprise.

"It was well-fought, but sometimes you can't really have done anything else." I observed.

Before anyone else could respond to my statement, however, the voices from the screen then brought a new element to the conversation: Aster suddenly declaring his intention to come to duel academy and deal with a 'faker' using 'his' deck…

That was it!

Aster Phoenix!

Sartorius is his 'manager', and currently my only real suspect!

That means his imminent arrival is my best chance to get started on figuring out what caused me to end up here, and potentially how to get back home!

"Are you okay, Marcus?" Kyle asked, confused.

"Yeah, you look… well, happy about this development." Miranda commented. "Doesn't seem like something to enjoy."

These statements seemed to bring the group's attention to me, before I shook my head a little "Oh, that. Sorry, I'm just a little worked up… I guess the idea of Jaden duelling a pro was enough to get my brain in the right gear!" rubbing the back of my head.

"You know it!" Jaden declared "I can't wait to throw down!" Why was it that my enthusiasm for actually seeing these kinds of duels made me act like him!? It was a cover, mainly, but still!

"Perhaps you should be a little more concerned." Bastion informed him. "After all, he just made quick work of our academy's top graduate."

"Yeah, I know…" Jaden started "…but doesn't that kind of thing only make the thought of duelling someone like that all the more exciting!?" he then declared.

"You know, I kind of get where he's coming from with that. The best contests of any kind are the ones where the odds against you are the longest." I commented. It wasn't always the most fun thing to do: to go up against long odds, but it was the best kind of thing, especially pulling out a win under those kinds of conditions!

After that, however, I spent the rest of the time in the arena pondering how best to deal with the imminent arrival of Aster Phoenix, and perhaps a way to draw the attention of Sartorius…

After we returned to the dorm, I stepped toward the door, nodding across to Miranda "Have a good night." I stated simply, turning back into the dorm. I could almost swear I saw a look of disappointment on her face as I went inside.

"It seems like someone likes you." Bastion commented with a smirk once we were away from the rest of the group.

"Yeah, and for the life of me, I can't figure out why. She seemed pretty abrasive the first time we talked, just before our duel. Hell, during our duel as well." I responded to Bastion, rubbing the back of my head. It didn't help our conversation that Jaden and Syrus were standing right there. It didn't hurt, given Jaden's ludicrous level of obliviousness on the subject, and Syrus' usual shyness keeping him from discussing it, but still.

"Maybe it doesn't matter." Kyle inserted. "Whatever it was that happened before. Would be a pretty bad reason to ignore the obvious."

You hear that, Jaden? Maybe you should take the time to see what's in front of everyone's faces as well.

Shrugging, I walked toward my room, stopping just before the door and turning back to them "Maybe you're right… But for now, I've gotta figure something out. Going to have to table that kind of thinking for a while. Good night…" I finished before entering.

* * *

It happened a short time later: exactly what I knew would. As I was sorting through my deck yet again, trying to figure out if any cards were out of place, an explosion was audible even from as far away as the Yellow Dorm.

Leaving my room quickly and making my way to the source of the explosion, I managed to catch up to Jaden, Syrus and Bastion who had already been moving toward it. "Wow, you guys are on the ball with this kind of thing! thought I'd be the first one here."

"Does that really matter right now?" Syrus protested.

"I suppose not." I admitted, shaking my head a little.

As the group of us finally came into the main courtyard, we saw them: someone laying on the ground, and standing over them, Aster Phoenix, who looked quite pleased with himself.

"Who's that?" Jaden asked, gesturing to the downed figure with the cards scattered around him.

"Just some punk that thought crime paid off… took care of him, though…" Aster replied simply, sounding unaffected by whatever just happened.

"He's completely out." Syrus started.

"What did you do to him!?" Bastion then demanded.

However, seemingly oblivious to this, Aster turned to Jaden "So, Jaden… how's it going?"

"Pretty sure Bastion asked you a question." I interjected simply.

"Yeah, spill it! What'd you do?" Jaden now demanded.

"Hey, save the hostility for our duel later!" Aster responded, though I could swear his eyes widened in surprise upon seeing me, soon replaced by a glare.

Immediately, Crowler and Bonaparte rushed over to him and started kissing up to Aster "Greetings, Aster, I'm Chancellor Bonaparte, and this is my personal assistant!" he then introduced himself to the pro leaguer.

 _Pretty sure Crowler can do something about that kind of bombastic claim, though he's probably too nervous right now to think of it. Why would Sheppard put HIM in charge of all people?_

"Any and all administration requests have to go through my agent." Aster then stated bluntly, before walking away. "Oh, one other thing, Jaden. Besides your friends, no other spectators. Wouldn't want to get too big a crowd, we'd have to televise it at that point. No point to making your humiliation THAT public."

"Nice thought for someone that went through the trouble of shaming him in public as a design thief…" I retorted, irritated with the smugness he was currently exhibiting.

"I only spoke the truth. At least, what's fit to print, anyway. Who do you think they would believe? The pro or the low-tier student?" Aster then commented, not at all amused with the current situation. "Either way, we'll settle it tomorrow." Aster concluded, before moving to leave.

"Give me a moment, you guys, I'll need to have a little chat with our new 'friend'." I stated, with a little more hostility than originally intended, moving to follow after Aster.

 _This is my chance to get a line to Sartorius! I need to take it!_

"Marcus, no! It's not worth it!" Bastion stated, grabbing my arm.

"He's right, bro. Fighting's not gonna solve anything here." Jaden added, now on my other side.

They clearly assumed I meant to beat the crap out of Aster for our back-and-forth, as well as his smug attitude. Honestly, I was tempted, but I had other ends that needed to be accomplished, and fighting him wouldn't actually accomplish any of that.

But, since it was clear I wasn't going to get anywhere near Aster without drawing suspicion at the moment, I decided to play along with their idea. "Oh. All right, all right. You can let me go now. Thanks for that, might have done something really stupid." I commented, straightening out my coat.

 _Come to think of it, I still have to see if I can get one of those long coats with the backs that almost sweep the ground. Though, I'm fairly certain those are only for the blues._

That aside, one way or another, I was going to contact that mind-warping fortune teller. I had to…

* * *

The next day, with our group in the stadium, I stood rather far from the rest of the group, standing next to the entrance of a hallway as they prepared for the duel to begin. I could tell the rest of them were rather confused about what I was doing over here, but they were, mercifully, distracted from Mindy and Jasmine cheering for Aster out of some misplaced crush on him.

 _Okay, I need to wait here, and it should be obvious as soon as I hear it._

"Yes, Master Sartorius, the duel is about to begin…" a voice stated from the immediate place around the corner from me.

 _And there it is._

Turning the corner quickly, I shifted around the man making the call and looked him dead in the eye, holding out a hand and gesturing to it.

However, far from looking surprised and saying something about it, he merely said into the phone "Of course. Yes, he's here." Before handing across the phone to me. "Good luck."

Now a little concerned, as I picked up the phone from the man, turning toward the arena and saying quietly "Sartorius?"

" _Yes, indeed. I was almost concerned you would not attempt to contact me."_

"Almost?" I asked, before commenting "I thought you could see the future. Shouldn't you have known I was coming?"

" _But of course, 'Mr. Kolstet'. But you are an anomaly, so your fate is not completely clear to me."_

That aethereal tone, which made it obvious he knew it wasn't actually my name, caused me an involuntary shudder.

" _Have you been enjoying your time at Duel Academy thus far?"_

"Cut the crap, Sartorius. You clearly know who I am… which means you're the one that made that whole story up. Why? Why am I here?" I demanded over the phone, though the man standing next to me didn't look impressed at all.

" _Oh, I know who you are, 'Marcus'. However, I cannot simply tell you all you need to know over the phone. All will be made clear in due time. Otherwise, enjoy the duel. I will see you soon…"_

After this, he hung up the phone, so I then handed it back to the man. "You'll want to watch your tone when speaking to Master Sartorius." he warned me.

Damn, that Sartorius gives me the creeps. Though, calling me an 'anomaly' was more informative than he probably thought. If he can't accurately predict my actions 100%, then he may even see me as a threat, after a fashion.

Making my way back up to the stands where the rest of the group, minus Mindy and Jasmine were sitting, though it looked like they had to stop Alexis from leaving to go with them. "Sorry about that, just had something to take care of." I stated before sitting down.

"Well, you're right on time. The duel is about to begin." Bastion then informed me.

"Game on!" could be heard from the both of them in the arena. **(Jaden LP: 4000 / Aster LP: 4000)**

"I'll start us off!" Aster declared. "I summon **Elemental Hero Clayman** in defence mode! Look familiar? **(DEF: 2000)** I guess I can let you go after that."

"So begins the mirror match." I commented dryly.

"I don't think so." Bastion responded. "Remember, Aster's core monsters may be the same, but his fusion monsters are drastically different."

 _That IS true, but watch your assumptions about his 'core' monsters.  
_

"All right then! My move!" Jaden then called out, drawing his card in his typical dramatic fashion. "All right, I'll start with **Polymerization**! Fusing the **Elemental Hero Avian** and **Elemental Hero Burstinatrix** in my hand to summon **Elemental Hero Flame Wingman**! **(ATK: 2100)** Now, attack his Clayman with skydive scorcher!" Everyone now being treated to the sight of Flame Wingman annihilating Clayman. "Thanks to Flame Wingman's superpower, you get hit for Clayman's attack points!" Jaden then added, as Flame Wingman now point-blank blasted Aster with his fire arm. **(Aster LP: 4000 – 3200)** "After that, I'll activate the spell card **Mirage of Nightmare**! Then I set two cards face-down, and hand it to you…"

"I guess the pro doesn't get to draw first blood this duel." Chazz commented.

"Are you okay?" Mindy bubbled toward Aster.

"Just a scratch." Aster responded confidently, "Now it's my turn!" he added, drawing his card.

"During your standby phase, thanks to my Mirage of Nightmare, I get to draw until I have four cards in my hand!" Jaden explained, now drawing four cards.

No wonder that thing's banned.

"Yeah, so long as you discard them all on your next standby phase." Aster commented, before beginning his turn "I now activate MY **Polymerization**! Like you, I'll fuse my **Elemental Hero Avian** , and **Elemental Hero Burstinatrix**! But unlike you, I'll be summoning **Elemental Hero Phoenix Enforcer**!" **(ATK: 2100)**

"I wonder what the odds are they had the exact same three cards in their opening hands?" I commented, amused.

"That would depend on the number of the same card each player uses." Alexis answered. "But considering the duelists, I wouldn't be surprised if each of them only played one of each hero. So that's quite the coincidence."

Jaden, however, just seemed to be getting excited. "Wow, that's really cool!"

"Now, attack his Flame Wingman!" Aster declared, seeming to ignore Jaden's comment, now had Phoenix Enforcer launch a multi-coloured light orb at Flame Wingman, who also lobbed a fireball back at him, the explosion where the blasts met annihilating Flame Wingman, but leaving his monster intact.

"Heh, the power of monsters that can't be destroyed by battle." I commented. "That's why monsters with that ability typically have low attack and defence points."

"That's not fair." Syrus stated.

"That'll do it for me!" Aster declared.

Jaden, however, interrupted "Before your turn ends, I activate the spell card **Emergency Provisions**! By sacrificing my mirage of nightmare, I gain 1000 life points! Pretty sweet, huh?" **(Jaden LP: 4000 – 5000)**

"Also sparing Jaden the side-effect of Mirage of Nightmare. Very tidy." Bastion commented with a nod.

"All right, now it's my move! I draw! Now I'll summon **Elemental Hero Clayman** in defence mode! **(DEF: 2000)** Then I activate the spell card **Miracle Fusion**! Now I can remove from play, from my field or graveyard, fusion-material monsters, and summon an Elemental Hero fusion monster! I remove Avian from my graveyard and Clayman from play, in order to summon **Elemental Hero Gaia**!" **(ATK: 2200)**

 _Another monster I've never seen him use. This one's a hefty one…_

"My Gaia's got a pretty sweet effect! When he's summoned, I can halve the attack points of one of your monsters until the end of my turn, and the difference is added to Gaia's attack points! I choose your Phoenix Enforcer! Weight of the Land!" **(Phoenix Enforcer ATK: 2100 – 1050) (Gaia ATK: 2200 – 3250)** Watching now as Phoenix Enforcer was drawn into a crack in the ground, which then pushed back in on it.

"Nice move, Jaden… his monster may not be able to be destroyed, but he'll still be taking damage…" Alexis commented.

"Now! Gaia! Attack with Seismic Smash!" Jaden called out, his Gaia now rushing over punching clean through Phoenix Enforcer **(Aster LP: 3200 – 1000)**

"Wow, he hit him pretty hard. Jaden might actually win this." Chazz stated, though his tone sounded like he didn't really believe that.

Considering Jaden was using a wider range of monsters than I expected, I'm not at all surprised. Then again, I'm not sure what Aster's expanded range could actually bring to the game at this point.

"All right, it's your move, bro." Jaden stated.

"That's it! You're going down!" Aster declared, his normal calm seeming to hang on by a thread. "You can't win. Destiny's on my side! At the end of your turn, my Phoenix Enforcer returns to normal!" Phoenix Enforcer now busting out of the hole he'd been trapped in. **(Enforcer ATK: 1050 – 2100) (Gaia ATK: 3250 - 2200)** "Now I draw! I'll activate Polymerization! Fusing my **Elemental Hero Sparkman** in my hand with Phoenix Enforcer to summon **Elemental Hero Shining Phoenix Enforcer**! **(ATK: 2500)** That's not all. Shining Phoenix Enforcer gains 300 attack points for every hero card in my graveyard! Since I have five, that makes another 1500 points! **(ATK: 2500 – 4000)** Now, Shining Phoenix Enforcer, attack his Gaia with shimmer kick!" the monster now diving down and crashing into Gaia, shattering it. **(Jaden LP: 5000 – 3200)**

"Since you just destroyed a monster on my side of the field, I now activate **Hero Signal**! It allows me to take an elemental hero monster from my deck and summon it to the field! I summon **Elemental Hero Stratos**!" **(ATK: 1800)**

 _Stratos? I was wondering if he'd actually summon it. Nice._

"All right, now Stratos' effect activates! When he's summoned, I can use one of two effects. I use the first effect to add another hero monster to my hand from my deck! I add **Elemental Hero Ocean** from my deck to my hand!" now getting another card from his deck to his hand.

"Two cards for the price of one? Nice move, Jay!" Syrus encouraged.

"All right. I'll set one card face-down. It's your move." Aster stated.

"Yeah! I draw! Now, I'll play my own **Polymerization**! I fuse Stratos with the **Elemental Hero Ocean** in my hand in order to create **Elemental Hero Absolute Zero!"** **(ATK: 2500)**

"Absolute Zero. Did you pick that one to perfectly describe yourself? What a joke." Aster asked mockingly.

"Oh, it's no joke. And when you see Zero in action, you'll understand why. Absolute Zero, attack his monster! Blizzard Strike!" Jaden directed.

"But why? That thing's way weaker than Aster's monster!" Syrus asked incredulously, while Absolute Zero shot a barrage of ice shards at his Enforcer, only for them to be knocked aside.

"Wait for it." I couldn't help but comment, as Aster's monster now rushed it down and destroyed it. **(Jaden LP: 3200 – 1700)**

"That was quite the waste of time and effort, Jaden. The pressure getting to you?" Aster asked with mock concern.

"No, just setting up for my monster's effect." Jaden retorted simply. "When Absolute Zero is destroyed, it leaves behind a wave of cold that destroys all of your monsters! Absolute Freeze!" He then declared, Aster's Enforcer now shattering into icy pieces.

"Impressive. He worked around the conditions and destroyed a very powerful monster that couldn't be destroyed in battle." Bastion observed.

"This duel's great!" Jaden declared, giving a laugh "I haven't a challenge like this in a long time! This is so fun!"

"That casual attitude of yours disgusts me!" Aster spat. "It's insulting! People like you, using hero monsters just because you like how they look, and not caring about real justice! There's a reason I play these cards… you know what, I think I'll just show you! I activate the trap card **D-Time**! Since you destroyed my Enforcer, I can add to my hand hero monsters with a total level up to or equal to the one I just lost! Now I add to my hand the monsters that will spell your doom! **Destiny Hero - Malicious** , and **Destiny Hero - Disk Commander**!" he then declared.

 _Malicious and Disk Commander? I thought Aster was trying to screw with Jaden's head and convince him he had control of the duel? How much have things changed this quickly…?_

"Destiny Heroes? What are those?" Jaden asked, looking confused.

"They're the best heroes in the game. A series of hero cards that were designed by Industrial Illusions, but never released to the public! Now I'll use them here to show you who the better duelist really is!" Aster then declared, looking directly at Jaden.

"All right. I'll set a card face-down, and give it to you…" Jaden then stated.

"All right, it's my move! I draw! Now, I activate the spell card **Graceful Charity**! I'll draw three cards, and then send two cards from my hand to my graveyard!" Aster now explained, discarding Malicious and Disk Commander.

"If he was just gonna discard them, why go through the effort to get them? Seems pointless to grab simple discard fodder from a deck search." Chazz commented.

"Wait for it." I found myself saying again.

"Why?" The rest of them seemed to ask as one.

"All right, now I activate the effect of **Destiny Hero -** **Malicious**! By removing the copy in my graveyard from the game, I can special summon another one from my deck! Appear, **Destiny Hero – Malicious**!" **(ATK: 800)**

 _I only ever saw him used as synchro material, so let's see what Aster's got in mind using it here, that it was worth not using Doom Lord and Captain Tenacious to lock him…_

"I'll now activate the spell card **Monster Reborn**! I'll now revive the **Destiny Hero – Disk Commander** in my graveyard!" **(ATK: 300)** Aster then continued.

"Disk Commander? Seems like a bit of a waste, using monster reborn on a card like that. Especially with all the high-powered heroes we've been throwing down." Jaden observed.

"That's because you don't understand my cards. Disk Commander is one of my best heroes. Now I'll show you why! When I special summon him from my graveyard, his effect allows me to draw 2 more cards!" Aster then informed Jaden, before drawing his cards.

"That card turns any revival spell into Pot of Greed!?" Chazz asked incredulously.

"Not only that, it completely reversed the loss of cards in his hand from discarding for graceful charity." Bastion observed.

 _He went from one card in his hand up to five in one go with his hero grab. Let's see what he does with it…_

"Now, I activate **Magical Stone Excavation**! I discard my Destiny Hero – Dasher and Dark City in order to get a spell card back from my graveyard! I'll return my **Polymerization**! Then I use it to fuse my **Destiny Hero – Malicious** with **Destiny Hero – Disk Commander**! Now I summon **Vision Hero Adoration**!" **(ATK: 2800)**

 _VISION heroes!? I thought his whole thing was having destiny on his side! Thus the whole D-Hero thing!_

"Now what kind of monster is that?" Jaden asked, clearly as confused as I was. "I thought your new heroes were called 'Destiny Heroes'."

"Yeah, they are. But what kind of heroes would they be if they couldn't fuse to create something even more powerful? These are also a special breed of heroes, that don't require any specific heroes, or any specific attribute of monsters to fuse! As long as I have two heroes, that's all I need to summon this bad-boy! Besides, without vision, what would any of us actually know about our own destiny?" Aster then asked to Jaden, smirking across at him.

"You're getting way too deep into this." Jaden commented.

"I'm just getting started." Aster informed him. "You, however, are on the way out! Adoration! Attack him directly!"

As the monster approached, Jaden interrupted "Not so fast, Aster! I activate **The Flute of Summoning Kuriboh**! This allows me to summon **Winged Kuriboh** from my deck!" **(DEF: 200)**

"No biggie, Adoration! Crush that puffball so we can get this show on the road!" The Winged Kuriboh not standing a chance against his hero monster, easily crushed.

"All right. After that I'll set a card face-down and let you go. Though you might as well give up, I already know how the duel's going to end." Aster declared.

"Right, right, the whole destiny thing. I don't know if you actually do know what's going to happen, but I NEVER give up!" Jaden declared, before drawing a card for his turn. "Nice."

Looking back up at Aster, Jaden smiled "Now, I'll summon **Elemental Hero Bubbleman! (ATK: 800)** Because he's the only card on my field, I can draw two more cards! Now, I activate the spell card **Fusion Recovery**! With this, I can get back a fusion-material monster, as well as a polymerization back from my graveyard to my hand! I return **Elemental Hero Stratos** from my graveyard to my hand! Now I use the **Polymerization** card I got back to fuse **Elemental Hero Bubbleman** with my **Elemental Hero Necroshade** in order to create **Elemental Hero Escuridao! (ATK: 2500)** Now watch, because Escuridao has an awesome ability of his own! For every elemental hero in my graveyard, he gains 100 attack points! Since I have seven, he gains 700 points! **(ATK: 2500 – 3200)** Now attack his Adoration! Dark diffusion!" the shadow monster now striking down Aster's hero and causing it to shatter. **(Aster LP: 1000 – 600)**

"That's all right, now I activate my face-down card: **Destiny Signal**! This allows me to summon a level 4 or lower destiny hero from my deck directly to the field! Come on out, **Destiny Hero – Doom Lord!** " **(ATK: 600)**

"All right. I throw down a face-down, then call it a turn." Jaden then declared.

I was so on-edge about this duel I didn't even notice the wording they were using at this point: what would happen if Jaden actually WON this? This duel was the catalyst that got him his neo-spacian cards. What'll happen if he doesn't go!?

"All right, my move again! I draw!" Aster started, looking at his top card, he nodded "Yeah, that's perfect. I now activate the effect of my **Destiny Hero – Dasher**! Since the card I drew was a monster while Dasher's in my graveyard, I can summon it directly to the field! Come on out, **Destiny Hero – Double Dude**! **(ATK: 1000)** I'll also activate the effect of **Destiny Hero – Malicious** in my graveyard! You know what that means! Come on out, **Destiny Hero – Malicious**!" **(ATK: 800)** Now getting yet another Malicious out of his deck. "Before I do anything else, I'll use the effect of my **Destiny Hero – Doom Lord**! I'll send your Escuridao two turns into the future!"

"That's what you think, Aster! I activate **De-Fusion**! De-fusing Escuridao back into **Elemental Hero Bubbleman,** and **Elemental Hero Necroshade**!" **(Bubbleman DEF: 1200) (Necroshade DEF: 1800)**

"Big deal. I'll cut right through those two. Now, I tribute Malicious, Doom Lord and Double Dude in order to special summon **Destiny Hero – Dogma!" (ATK: 3400)** Aster then shouted.

 _Dogma…? Not pulling any punches, I guess… though with only one card left in his hand, I'm not sure how much more he can do…_

"I'll activate the last card in my hand, **Pot of Greed**! Now bringing my hand up two more cards! Now, that's not all. I still haven't used my normal summon yet! I summon **Destiny Hero – Diamond Dude! (ATK: 1400)** Now I activate the effect of my Diamond Dude, checking the top card of my deck, and if it's a spell card, I send it to the graveyard, but I'll get to activate it next turn. Let's see… ah, I reveal my **Misfortune** spell card, so it gets set up for next turn in my graveyard. Now, Dogma, crush his Necroshade!" I now watched as Necroshade was cut in half by Dogma. "All right, Diamond Dude, get rid of that Bubbleman!" Everyone watching as Jaden's field was cleared yet again. "Finally, I set one card face-down, and let you go. Still think you can win?"

 _Damn it, he's got Jaden backed into quite a corner, it's usually about this time that he gets something crazy done._

 _Wait... When did I start cheering for Aster?_

"The duel's not over until the last card is played! I draw!" Jaden started, before being interrupted by Aster.

"Now, at the start of your turn, the effect of my Dogma activates, cutting your life points in half!" Aster then proceeded to inform him. **(Jaden LP: 1700 – 850)**

"Okay then. Now I'll activate **Pot of Greed**! Allowing me to draw two more cards!" looking over his hand now, Jaden started to form a plan "Now I activate the field spell **Fusion Gate**! This allows us both to fusion summon even if we don't have a spell card to do it, provided we remove the monsters from play! I remove **Elemental Hero Sparkman** and **Elemental Hero Bladedge** from my hand in order to summon **Elemental Hero the Shining**!" **(ATK: 2600)**

 _Seriously!? How many fusion cards do these two run!?_

"My shiny new monster has a pretty rad effect, too! For every Elemental Hero I have removed from play, the Shining gains 300 extra points! Since I have 4, that's an extra 1200 points!" **(ATK: 2600 – 3800)** Even as Jaden was explaining the Shining's effect, I could see no apparent change in Aster's expression. His face-down HAD to be something.

However, this duel was over, he just hadn't figured it out yet.

Though, judging from the immediate change in his expression, it was clear he remembered something.

Jaden then resumed his move, "Now, for my turn's normal summon, I summon **Elemental Hero Stratos**!" **(ATK: 1800)**

"That's right. The monster he brought back with Fusion Recovery earlier!" Bastion stated, nodding along with the situation.

It had been showing of the tension of the situation by how relatively quiet the peanut gallery had been up until this point.

Aster, however, looked as if he now knew what was happening, even before Jaden told him "I now use the second effect of **Elemental Hero Stratos**! I can target as many spell and trap cards on the field as other heroes I control, and destroy them! I target your face-down card!"

Everyone now knew the duel was over as Aster's 'D-Counter' trap was destroyed. "Now, Stratos! Destroy his Diamond Dude! **(Aster LP: 600 – 200)** Shining, bring it home! Destroy his Dogma with Optical Stream!"

Though, upon realizing the duel was over, Aster's face went from shock and internal denial to a look of determination, "All right, then we'll go out with a bang!" Aster shouted defiantly "Get him, Dogma!" the two monsters now engaged in what seemed to be a brawl until the Shining now blasted Dogma with a white-glowing energy sphere. **(Aster LP: 200 – 0)**

 _Well, I guess that's it. Come what may, we're going to have to deal with the consequences of Jaden WINNING when he shouldn't have…_

Aster looked, for his part, completely stunned at this point by what had happened. I knew it would likely be more difficult for him as well than before, as the timing of certain points had yet to happen.

"That's game!" came Jaden's cheerful response, as the rest of the group seemed elated at Jaden defeating a pro.

"Marcus? You all right?" Kyle then asked from next to me. "You look like you just watched someone kick a puppy or something. Jaden won against a pro!"

"Yeah, what's the problem, soldier?" Hassleberry then asked me. I couldn't exactly explain it to any of them, so I simply shook my head a bit.

"Call it a feeling I've got. I don't know why, but I think something bad's about to happen soon." I informed them. It's not like they would believe me if I told them right now anyway, and they should have their moment.

"You're just being jittery, Kolstet. Calm down, you're bringing down the mood!" Chazz berated me.

"I suppose you're right. Might as well enjoy the moment, right?" I offered encouragingly, as I heard Syrus call out "Way to play, Jay!" over to Jaden.

 _Maybe I'll have to send him to Neo-space myself somehow._

* * *

 _Sartorius POV:_

" _It seems the anomaly is working a little too effectively. I shall have to move more carefully with my next steps, if I am to accomplish my goal and make Jaden Yuki see the light! But what is this?"_

 _Now looking back down at the table, I couldn't help but notice one of the less common occurrences in my readings._

" _The tower is in reverse. It seems our agent of change may yet be of use to me…"_


	5. Chapter 5 - 'Friendly' challenges

_Perhaps I was wrong, maybe things might just work out._

This had become my thought process as, after roughly a week of watching and waiting, absolutely nothing had taken place. No Sartorius, no people losing their minds and joining a freaky light cult, not a thing wrong. Hell, Aster had even joined Duel Academy earlier than I remember. Though he wasn't exactly the most friendly of sorts.

I learned this the hard way when I tried to talk to him about Sartorius:

" _Yeah, and what do you think you know about him!? He's my manager, and he's been my friend for even longer than that! You think you can just come up and trash a friend like that to my face, and I'm just going to go along with it and smile!? Get the hell out of my face! If I catch you near this yacht again we'll both find out just how well you can swim with a broken leg!"_

Then again, perhaps attempting to tell him what I actually knew about Sartorius was a bad idea while he was still probably looking for an excuse to go off on someone. Though, since then, he hasn't said a word to me at all, so it seemed we were going to settle into an order of 'don't bother me and I won't bother you', at least for now.

Honestly, I'd love to be wrong about this, especially considering that he actually was Aster's friend: something I'd forgotten about when I had gone to speak to him.

Though, all of Aster's hostility seemed to be counterbalanced by the sudden affection I was receiving from Miranda, who, if she wasn't with me in our group, I had spotted following me from the sidelines. I could just be imagining things in that regard, but it feels like she's downright omnipresent. I stay at my dorm, she comes by to chat. I haven't seen her in a while, I get an offer to accompany her somewhere. If I go anywhere on the island, I feel like she's watching me for some reason.

It was quite strange to me.

No warning signs or climate of tension, however, made it feel as if something bad were immediately about to happen, and I was treating the situation as such.

"You okay, Marcus?" Kyle asked, as we had settled down to enjoy dinner. "I thought you'd be eating in the blue dorm with Miranda."

"Nah." I responded. "She said she had something she needed to take care of, so could neither invite me there, nor join us here. She seemed kind of upset about it, too. Maybe I should take her out somewhere."

"Where can you take her out to on an island?" Kyle asked, looking a little confused.

"Oh, there are plenty of places to go, even on an island such as this." Bastion answered him. "You merely need to consider each area on the island, rather than established places. All that is really needed to enjoy someone else's company is to do the things you ordinarily do with someone else. That is how you know the other person is truly in sync with you."

Again, for someone without a lot of life experience, it's almost scary how insightful he is.

"Thanks for that, Bastion. I'm actually coming up with a couple of ideas. Though I hope to dispel the rumors I've heard floating around that she's my girlfriend. I'm fairly certain it's not that kind of relationship. At least, I think so." I commented, rubbing the back of my head as I attempted to wrap my brain around it. I'd never really had a girlfriend before, so I didn't actually know what that kind of scenario would look like.

"Well, tell me, Marcus: how often have you seen each other outside of group gatherings?" Bastion then asked, looking a little surprised that I was even starting to deny such a thing.

"Hmm. Miranda either comes to see me or bumps into me around the island every so often. When we're not with the group, umm… every couple days, I would say." I answered him, deciding not to mention the omnipresent feeling I got from her.

"Marcus, it feels like every time I go by your dorm I hear you talking to her." Kyle interjected. "If not in person, then on your phone. You go out with her every couple of days, too. Fairly certain she's your girlfriend."

Suddenly feeling the heat rising in my cheeks as I thought about this concept, I looked around the hall, that that didn't help: anyone I caught the eye of simply nodded in agreement. Was it that obvious!?

Shaking my head, I hurriedly changed the subject "On the other hand, you guys hear what happened? Apparently Vice Chancellor Bonaparte tried to tear down the red dorm but got wrecked by Chancellor Crowler."

"Yes, I know. I was there." Bastion responded. "I'm also fairly certain I am the one who told you about it. How flustered are you right now?"

 _What?! Oh, come on!_

Luckily, however, I had just finished my dinner, so I could go back to my room and cool off before trying to talk to anyone else about this kind of thing. Maybe Alexis or one of her friends would be able to confirm or deny it for me.

"I'll see you guys later. I need some time to think about this latest development." I finished before disappearing from the room.

Stepping back into my room, I attempted to process what they were telling me, while looking outside at the rapidly-darkening sky: was she my girlfriend? It still didn't really feel like it. I'm not sure why, but it doesn't.

Either way, it was time for me to do another spot check around the campus. If there was going to be any kind of insanity taking place, then I was going to know about it so I might move to fix it.

 _At least Jaden seems to be doing well._

This was my line of thought as I was essentially just wandering the island in the dark. Jaden had been stoked at first from beating a pro, before resuming his normal school life. He didn't know about the light of destruction, nor about neo-space. If I did, he wouldn't believe me any more than Aster would if I tried to actually tell him. That was something that HAD to be experienced in order to understand it.

Continuing through the woods, it wasn't long before I heard a crash coming from further away, a flicker of light glinting in the distance.

 _Oh, no._

Sprinting toward the light, I was starting to hope that it was just another incident akin to the 'duel giant' incident from last year.

However, before I reached the source of the light, I saw a shape on the path leading toward the school. "Ah, greetings, 'Marcus'. I had wondered if you would be the first I would encounter here."

That damned aethereal voice.

"Sartorius." I confirmed. "So you DID decide to show up."

"Why, of course I did. You are surely aware that I still have plans that must be attended to." He responded, sounding amused that I had hoped he wouldn't come.

"All right then. So who's your first sucker?" I asked him, unamused.

"Ah, you refer to the newest member of the Society of Light? Perhaps you may go find out. But first, a test, if you will." Sartorius commented, a table now appearing in front of him, mist floating about still from his previous duel.

"Fun party trick, conjuring a table from nowhere. So you're going to try to brainwash me, are you?" I asked him, confused.

"Oh, no. Why would I spoil the fun? I am intrigued by what you will do in response to my actions, and those of the Society of Light. Events until now have changed my perception of the future. I simply propose a reading, so that we may take a look at YOUR future." Sartorius then offered.

I shouldn't trust a word this guy says. That's the simple fact I know. However, I also need to know if he is the one who brought me here, or how to get myself home.

"Sartorius. I asked you on the phone if you were the one that brought me here. That remains my question." I stated.

"But of course." He replied simply, never losing the creepy tone he continued to speak in. "I am in fact the one who knew you were coming, and simplified your journey here. Is that what you wanted to hear?"

' _Is that what I wanted to hear'? He's still messing with me. Outright admits it, but lying about it still. Damn, this is confusing!_

"All right, fine. Let's do the test, then." I told him, annoyed.

"Very well. I shall commence." Now fanning out the full tarot deck onto the table, closing his eyes and laying out several cards onto the table.

I was getting a strangely warm feeling in my gut as he ran through the cards. I wasn't sure what it was, but it was making me wonder just what he would flip into.

"Hmm..." he paused, before flipping one of the cards. "The tower is in reverse." He spoke, clearly indicating he had been expecting this. "Such stems from the fear of change, and of the avoidance of disaster. I expected this. After all, you have, until now, drawn on your knowledge of what was going to happen to emplace yourself here properly. Now that events have veered drastically off-course, you are left to wonder how to prevent what you know might come."

 _Of course I'm scared! I've known what was coming this whole time, at least in general! Now I'm grasping around to figure out how this will end, and what I need to do to fix the timeline. It's a daunting prospect!_

"But enough of that. Next… ah, the justice is in reverse as well. That, also, is not a surprise. After all, you have violated the laws of space and time to appear here, and have not been held to account for such things. You are not what they assume you to be, but I wonder how long you can keep that composed, considering there are others who know about it…"

 _He knows. He knows how I got here, when I got here, and the fact I am not of this world, and he plans to tell the Society of Light about it in order to use it against me in the future._

"But moving on. Ah, the hermit is also in reverse. Your fate thus far does not seem to be a kind one, 'Marcus'. This makes clear your isolation, you may have surrounded yourself with others who believe they understand you, but not a one knows what you really are, nor can they understand what you know. Perhaps you have already attempted to warn them, but to no avail. It is a dangerous task, meddling with the future, and one you are ill-suited for."

 _Of course I'm alone! I'm quite literally the only one here from my entire world! I haven't the faintest clue what I'm doing here, and yet the people I've met seem to think they know what I'm thinking! Absurd!_

"Now, for your next card. The magician is right-side up. This speaks of your skill and concentration. You are indeed as capable as you believe yourself to be, and every bit the duelist I would have expected you to be. My congratulations."

 _Hollow flattery coming from him. I already knew I was good at this, and I may have to take destiny into my own hands to fix this insanity before it becomes too dangerous for the rest of the school._

"For the fifth and final card of your reading, a pointer toward the future. The judgment is in reverse!" he finished, seeming almost triumphant with the final card revealed. "You doubt your worth, despite your capability, and yet refuse to consider where it might be you went wrong! Such is a dangerous sign for the future, 'Marcus', not only for yourself, but for others, whom you might wish to aid!"

 _What kind of fortune-cookie nonsense is he spouting now!? Self-reflection!? Is that how I'm supposed to get out of this? That's complete and utter nonsense! What I need to do is figure out how this nut got me here in order to get myself home!_

"All right, that's about all I'm going to take from you! You're going to tell me how you got me here, and how to get home, or I am going to shatter your wheel of fate right here, you light-crazed lunatic!" I then started, rushing him, pushing through his table.

However, all it took was for him to look me in the eye for him to smile at this. "It seems you are even more on the right path than I first thought. Tell me, boy, can you see duel spirits?"

"You know I can't!" I commented, irritated. "I'm not from this world, how would I?"

"Amusing. There are spirits linked to your soul, yet you cannot see them. That makes it even more intriguing." He commented, before resuming, completely unshaken by the fact that I had a grip on his coat "Though, tell me, are you not at all concerned for the welfare of my duel's opponent?" he was so smug about this, knowing I couldn't beat the crap out of him like I wanted to without ignoring the welfare of whoever it was that he attacked.

Damn it.

"It seems you win this round." I stated, annoyed, before going to head toward whoever it was that was laying on the ground I could see nearby.

"I have won far more than that, boy. Though you have yet to see it. You will, though, when, in the end, you see the light." he finished with a laugh before a bright light appeared in front of me, forcing me to shield my eyes. Once I turned back to spot him, he was gone.

"Smug prick…" I commented, now going over to the fallen figure in order to see who it was.

Wait a second, isn't this…?

"Mindy?" I looked down at her in surprise. Alexis' spaced-out, boy-crazy friend?

SHE was Sartorius' first victim?

Apparently Sartorius wasn't the brightest bulb in the box, if he thought she would help him take over the school. I've seen her duel, and her deck is packed with whatever she thought looked cute and then cards that helped those cute things.

But, that could wait at the moment. She seemed fine right now, but I doubt an entire night sleeping out here on the ground would be good for her.

"Here's hoping this doesn't get weird…" I commented, now having to pick her up, which was actually somewhat easier than I expected, as she was, in fact, quite light. Managing to get her unconscious form onto my back, I was rather surprised by just how much I noticed her breathing pushing into my back.

 _It's not weird unless you make it weird. You're helping her get to safety. It's not weird unless you make it weird._

This chant kept up in my head as I made my way through the woods and toward the red dorm, which was the nearest to my position of the dorm buildings. Continuing to forcefully ignore the fact that I had to support her by her thighs at the moment, I inwardly again cursed whoever it was that thought these tiny skirts were a great idea.

It was quite strange having to lug another person around like a backpack. I did, however, manage to get to the red dorm before the situation got any stranger. Taking a slow, wobbling march up the red dorm's stairs whilst still carrying an unconscious Mindy on my back, I knocked on the center door of the dorm, the absurdly protruding room that looked as if about to subsume the other rooms within itself. It had to be Chazz's remodeled room.

However, it took some work to knock enough with my hands occupied to actually get him to figure out there was someone at the door. The last time I actually headbutted the door to get his attention.

Now, as I wished my hands were free to rub my throbbing forehead, I could hear a voice from inside the room "Yeah, yeah, I'm going already! This better be good, for those dorks to bother me this late." Before the door opened. "What do you- oh, Marcus? What are you doing out here? What's going on!?" he responded indignantly as I stepped into the room, carrying her along.

"Sorry, Chazz, but I needed to bring her somewhere where she wouldn't be sleeping on the ground. I found her passed-out in the woods for some reason." I told him, knowing he wouldn't believe the Sartorius story, since he didn't actually experience it. "Planned to ask her about it when she woke up."

"Yeah, well, this ain't a bed-and-breakfast! Put her up in one of the other rooms!" Chazz protested, before suddenly blurting to nothing "Yeah, well who asked you!?" before swatting at the air.

If I didn't know about the ojamas, I'd swear he was just nuts.

"Yeah, I see it." Chazz then commented to nobody in particular, before turning back to me. "Just set her down, then. Not worth leaving a girl in one of those shabby rooms in the rest of the dorm."

Looking around, I laid her out on the couch in the middle of this main room. It looked like the room itself split off into smaller rooms. "I'm amazed you were physically able to build this without taking over the whole dorm building." I admitted after a glance around.

"Yeah, it's not bad. It's acceptable." Chazz stated proudly. It was clear this was still a step down for him, but it was already better than my room here.

One only wonders how much this whole building project ran him.

"But that aside. What happened? You don't just find random people passed-out in the woods. Did you do something?" Chazz then demanded, sounding quite suspicious.

"No!" I replied immediately, torn between being indignant and being nervous about that kind of inquiry. "I was walking after dinner trying to think about a few things when I found her out cold on the forest path. I still want to know what happened myself."

 _More like 'I want to know why Sartorius decided she would make an appropriate target instead of Chazz'. Maybe there's some potential in her that she hasn't bothered with yet._

"Uh, what's going on?" a female voice then asked. Turning, I saw Alexis coming out of one of the rooms. "Marcus? What are you doing here? Mindy? What's she doing here?" now hurrying over to see her friend passed out of the couch.

"That's what I want to know." Chazz responded. "He says he found her out in the woods, but I'm sure there's more to it than that."

"If you did anything to my friends, Marcus-" Alexis then started, but I interrupted before she could finish that thought.

"I didn't do anything to anyone!" I countered. "I was on a walk when I ran into some blue-haired nut. Gave a bit of a rant about destiny before he disappeared. Once he was gone, I saw her on the ground. Must have been pretty crazy to have had her out like that."

It was a crude explanation, but laid the groundwork at least for them to know about Sartorius.

"I suppose we'll find out when she comes to." I suggested. "In the meantime, this isn't exactly my dorm, so I suppose I'll be-"

"Where do you think you're going?" Alexis then demanded.

"You haven't been cleared yet, so you'll be staying here for a bit. Once we get it from her, you can go." Chazz stated.

Barely managing to keep from rolling my eyes, I stepped over to the cushy chair in the room. "Very well, then. I'll stay until then." I ceded. "I guess we wait." I stated, looking at the two of them. However, Chazz seemed to be looking over to my immediate right, as if something else was there.

After about an hour of relative silence, I spoke "You know, maybe we should take this chance. I don't think I've gotten the chance to talk to either of you in the time I've been here. At least outside of group events."

"This isn't exactly a social call, Marcus. This whole thing's still suspicious." Alexis chided.

"Yeah. We gotta know you're not some kind of creeper." Chazz added. "You're the creepiest of them all!" he then almost shouted after a moment of silence, waving his arms in the air.

"Well, that's uncalled for." I observed, shaking my head a little.

However, it wasn't long before the three of us nodded off where we were sitting.

Slowly coming to, I then saw that the figure on the couch across from me had come to, looking around the room. "Wha- where am I?" Mindy's voice asked aloud.

"M-mindy? Oh, good, you're all right!" Alexis responded, standing up before rushing over to her.

"Hey, Lex! H-how'd I get here?" Mindy then asked her, clearly confused.

"That's what we wanted to know. Marcus claims he found you out cold in the woods. What happened?" Alexis then asked her, sounding concerned.

"I…" Mindy paused a moment before starting "I don't know. I can't remember what happened. But that hardly matters! Lex! I met the most awesome guy ever!" she then perked up immediately with a large smile on her face.

"Awesome guy? Clearly doesn't mean Marcus." Chazz commented snidely.

"Not sure I heard that, Chazz. Care to repeat that?" I responded irritably.

"No, no! Though I do remember being kinda groggy and someone carrying me, not sure who it was. Something scary was following me though, so I didn't mind. Maybe it was a dream at that point." She mused, sounding as if attempting to recall a vague dream.

 _So, she WAS awake for part of that. That's awkward. At least she doesn't know who it was._

Mindy then resumed "But anyway, Lex, he told me about this totally awesome new group he started up called the 'Society of Light'! It's the best club ever! You've gotta join!" Mindy declared, sounding downright giddy.

 _Well, he did at least brainwash her. Not sure how much good it'll do him, though._

* * *

You know, after having found a ditzy airhead on the ground instead of Chazz, I thought that things would be less troublesome. I was proven to be quite wrong the very next day by the sight of a figure that made me do a complete double-take when she went by: a girl with long black hair that went straight down, though with a cute face wearing an airy expression and an easily-recognizable white uniform.

Was that Mindy!?

She looked like a raven-haired Alexis with how she had her hair right now, though her expression remained the same as ever. It was rather surreal to look at her right now.

"Oh? Marcus, is there something on my face?" I then realized she had asked me.

"Nothing! Nothing!" I protested, managing to compose myself after a moment. "I've just never seen you with your hair down like that before. What's with the getup?" I then asked her, already knowing the answer.

"Oh, this? It's my new outfit as a part of the Society of Light! Wanna join?" she then asked me.

Hell, if she was this charming like this, it might be hard to keep people OUT.

"Afraid not, Mindy. Though you may wanna ease up on the charm offensive, or we might have a scene in here." I told her, gesturing to the room around us, where half the guys there were looking across at her.

"That's okay. If they wanna join the Society of Light, they're free to try. Master Sartorius told me to duel them first though. Something about finding out if they're worthy to join, or something." She then commented, sounding as air-headed as ever about something that would lead to potential brainwashing. "Well, I've gotta get to my seat! Later!" she finished, before walking off.

"Well, that's unexpected." Bastion then commented, seeming to appear out of nowhere.

"What the-!? Bastion!? When did you get here?" I declared incredulously.

"At the same time as Mindy, pretty much. But whatever shall we tell Miranda?" Bastion commented, looking a cross of concerned and amused. "About your new crush on Mindy?"

Looking over at him and shaking my head defiantly, I declared "No! That's not it! I don't have a crush on Mindy. It's… Well, last night was weird, let's just say that. Though, now that you mention her, I haven't actually seen Miranda since yesterday morning. It's strange."

"I haven't either." Kyle added, now making his presence known. "But if you're not crushing on her, do you mind if I take a try at her?" I could practically see the hearts in his eyes right now. Couldn't really blame him: she was a looker, and that cheery, airy optimism she usually carried herself with was rather endearing.

"Go ahead. Though you may have to get in line for that honour." I observed, as she had drawn looks from a number of people. "Either way, it's time for class." I reminded them, as the substitute teacher started his lecture.

* * *

"Come to think of it, Schmitt's been out for a little while now, what's up with him?" I asked the others after class, trying to figure out what was going on.

"Apparently his headache is still there." Bastion stated. "It's quite strange, but it hasn't abated since the beginning of the year. He may be out for a while when he goes for medical testing."

 _That is weird. He's been like that since not long after our duel. Maybe he was like that SINCE our duel. But how would that even make sense?_

Shaking my head, I mentally reassured myself.

 _That's not a thing, maybe if he'd duelled Sartorius, that might be a thing, but not me._

"Hey, guys, did you hear? Alexis is gonna duel Mindy!" Syrus then sputtered as he ran over to us.

"Really?" I asked, curiously.

 _Guess I'll be seeing the end of the Society of Light in a single move. Nice job Sartorius, you scrub._

"Yeah! Apparently she wants Alexis to join that club she's in now!" Syrus commented. "Jaden already went to the arena to watch!"

"Come on, gents!" Bastion encouraged, the group of us running over to the arena now.

Once we had found our seats, I looked around the arena: still no sign of Miranda. Was she okay? I hope that damned Bastion didn't make her actually think I have a crush on Mindy now!

"All right, Mindy, it's been a while since we duelled. Let's see this new deck of yours!" Alexis declared, looking across at her friend encouragingly.

"Of course, bestie! I've gotta show you just how good I am now that I'm in the Society of Light! I hope to help you see the light too, while we're at it!" Mindy responded with a smile.

"Speaking of that Society, is that where you got the uniform? I've gotta say I like your new look. Looks familiar though." Alexis observed.

"Yeah." Mindy started, looking a little flustered. "I decided it was time for a change, and I always liked the way you had your hair, so I wanted to see if it worked. I think it does!"

It seemed they were still friendly to each other. Rather different from Alexis' altered personality in the Society. Though Mindy still made it clear she aimed to make Alexis 'see the light', so not everything was so peachy that I could let my guard down.

However, now that I thought about it: where was Jasmine? Her and Mindy always seemed inseparable, and yet I couldn't spot her anywhere right now.

"Ready?" Mindy asked, before the two declared "Game on!" **(Alexis LP: 4000 / Mindy LP: 4000)**

"Since I'm showing you what I can do, I'll go first! I draw! Now, I'll start the duel by summoning **Rescue Cat** to the field! **(ATK: 300)** Then I'll set two cards face-down and let you go." Mindy declared enthusiastically.

 _Rescue Cat? I guess she is still the same airhead as before. I wonder what kind of deck she put together to go with her normal cutesy cards._

"Still using your cute monsters, Mindy? Gonna be honest, I was expecting something… well, a bit different, anyway! I draw!" Alexis then began her turn. "I'll start by summoning **Cyber Petit Angel**! **(ATK: 300)** Now, my monster's effect activates, allowing to move **Machine Angel Ritual** from my deck to my hand! Now, I activate my spell, sacrificing **Cyber Petit Angel** and the **Etoile Cyber** in my hand to summon **Cyber Angel Idaten**! **(ATK: 1600)** By her effect, I'll be adding my **Machine Angel Ritual** from my deck to my hand! Then I equip my Idaten with **Ritual Weapon** , increasing her attack points by 1500!" **(ATK: 1600 – 3100)** Alexis then carried out her turn with an impressive efficiency, quickly getting a powerful monster to the field. "Now! Idaten! Attack!" she declared.

"Ah, ah, ah! Not so fast, Lex! I activate the trap card **Threatening Roar!** Now your monsters can't attack me this turn!" Mindy then quickly countered.

"Hmm, not bad. But let's see you get past my Idaten! I set one card face-down and end my turn!" Alexis the finished.

 _Nobody knew just how dangerous this was! Now if I said anything, they wouldn't believe me, and later, when it happened, I'd be on the hook for HOW I knew it worked like that! It was quite the lose-lose situation._

"I can only hope Alexis wins this." I commented, as my mind had run through the possibilities of what practical deck that little cat was used in before it got banned.

 _It can't be X-Sabers yet… which just leaves…_

 _This just got a whole lot worse._

"My move! I draw! Now, I activate the effect of my adorable little kitty! By sending it to my graveyard, I get some new friends to my field! I summon **Gladiator Beast Samnite** and **Test Tiger** to my side of the field! Aren't they cute?" **(Samnite ATK: 1600) (Tiger ATK: 600)**

 _Yeah. Gladiator Beasts. I HATE these things._

"But neither of them will be staying long! I activate the effect of my Tiger, tributing it so I can send Samnite back into my deck, in order to replace it with another gladiator beast monster! I now summon **Gladiator Beast Murmillo** to my side of the field! **(ATK: 800)** My little fishy has a party trick of its own, too. When it's summoned by the effect of a gladiator beast monster, I can destroy a monster on the field! I destroy your Idaten! Now, since I didn't use my summon this turn yet, I normal summon **Gladiator Beast Equeste**! **(ATK: 1600)** " once Alexis' angel shattered, Mindy smiled across at her "I hope your ready, Lex, because now my Murmillo attacks you directly! **(Alexis LP: 4000 – 3200)** Now, Equeste attacks you directly! **(Alexis LP: 3200 – 1600)"**

"Wow. You've gotten a lot better in a really short time, Mindy. I didn't expect you to come after me this hard from the start." Alexis complimented her.

"Yeah, I know, right? My deck's awesome now! In fact…" she then continued "…I'm not done yet! Because now at the end of my battle phase, my gladiator beasts can go back into the deck, replacing themselves with two new monsters! I special summon **Gladiator Beast Laquari** and **Gladiator Beast Bestiari** from my deck in attack mode! **(Laquari ATK: 1800) (Bestiari ATK: 1500)** Now I get to play even more fun effects! Laquari starts with an extra 300 attack points because it was summoned by a gladiator beast, and Bestiari gets to destroy a spell or trap card on the field! I target that face-down you left there, Lex!" **(Laquari ATK: 1800 – 2100)**

"It's not gonna be that easy, Mindy, because now I activate **Mystical Space Typhoon**! I use it to destroy your face-down card!" Alexis countered.

It personally gave me no small amount of satisfaction to watch the **Gladiator Beast War Chariot** she had face-down shatter into tiny bits. I had lost count of the number of times I got screwed over by that card, and it still riled me thinking about it.

"All right. I'll set one card face down and let you go, Lex. Good luck with your turn!" Mindy declared encouragingly.

It was strange, the air-headed girl who usually hung out with Alexis was giving HER encouragement in their duel. Considering I would have expected any protégé of Sartorius to be messing with their opponent's head, this seemingly casual match was downright astounding.

"Hmm, rather casual match still, it looks like." I commented.

"Looks can be deceiving, Marcus." Bastion observed. "Have you noticed it? Alexis was shaking a little just before her last counter-move. She's as floored by her friend's newfound skills as we are. Considering the fact she has no idea what to expect from Mindy's new gladiator beasts, I'm not surprised she's at least a little unnerved."

"Yeah, anyone going up against that deck for the first time is in for a rude awakening." I declared.

"How would you know? It's my first time seeing cards like these myself." Bastion commented to my statement.

"I've seen them before, and they're downright infuriating." I informed him.

"Where? They seem quite new." Bastion started.

"Don't worry about it. Just take my word for it, they're some of the nastiest monsters in the game." I then stated, attempting to veer the conversation away from my knowledge.

"Both of you can it, I'm trying to watch!" Chazz said angrily from a few seats over.

However, a moment after he said this, I spotted Jasmine arriving into the arena, watching from the uppermost row. Though she didn't change her look at all like Mindy did, she too had brought a surprise with her: She was wearing a white society uniform!

 _So it begins._

"All right, my move! I draw! I'll start with the spell card **Pot of Greed**! Giving my hand two more cards! Now, I summon **Manju of the Ten Thousand Hands**! **(ATK: 1400)** Using his effect, I'll add to my hand from my deck **Cyber Angel Dakini**! Now, I activate the spell card **Machine Angel Ritual**! Tributing Manju and **Cyber Angel Benten** to summon **Cyber Angel Dakini**! **(ATK: 2700)** Now, Mindy, I use the effect of the **Cyber Angel Benten** I tributed in order to add my **Cyber Angel Vrash** from my deck to my hand! But don't forget, Cyber Angel Dakini has a special ability as well! When I summon her, one of your monsters goes to the graveyard! But it's your pick, Mindy." She then informed her.

"Yeah, I know. Seen you duel enough times to know their effects, bestie." Mindy commented, sounding a little less bright than usual. "I'll send my **Gladiator Beast Bestiari** to my graveyard." Now removing her bird monster from the field.

"All right, now, Dakini! Attack her Laquari!" Alexis declared, as her monster now charged the creature.

"Not so fast, Lex! I activate the trap card **Waboku**! Now, not only is my monster not destroyed, but I don't take any damage!" Mindy then declared, revealing her trap card.

"Now she'll get to swap Laquari out again." I commented, heaving a sigh. Seeing these cards was giving me bad flashbacks to duels back home.

"Now, at the end of your battle phase, I send Laquari back to my deck, in order to special summon **Gladiator Beast Secutor!** " **(ATK: 400)** Mindy now told Alexis, revealing another gladiator beast.

"Well now, that's certainly unexpected." Bastion commented. "I would have thought the smart play would have been to summon that Murmillo again and destroy her cyber angel."

"Wait for it." I then informed him simply.

"You keep saying that, and something always happens. How do you know already?" Kyle then asked me.

"I told you I've seen these cards before. I know how they work. Lightsworns against Gladiator Beasts is an old, hated matchup of mine." I commented irritably.

"Anything else, Lex?" Mindy asked politely.

"Hmm, I'll set one card face-down, and at the end of my turn, the effect of my Dakini lets me add Cyber Angel Benten back from my graveyard to my hand!" Alexis then declared, now looking across at Mindy, wondering what she had in mind.

"All right, Lex! My move! I draw!" Mindy began again. "All right! I'll equip my Secutor with Gladiator Beast's Battle Archfiend Shield! Now, go get her Dakini!"

"What? Why? It's way weaker than my monster!" Alexis responded in confusion as her monsters attack was easily rebuffed. **(Mindy LP: 4000 – 1700)**

"That's not the point, Lex! My monster's shield protects it from being destroyed, so it survives the battle! So now I get to use its effect! When my secutor attacks or is attacked, at the end of the battle phase, I summon two gladiator beasts from my deck! So welcome back **Gladiator Beast Laquari** , and **Gladiator Beast Murmillo! (Murmillo ATK: 800) (Laquari ATK: 1800)** And just like before, Laquari gets an extra 300 points, while Murmillo takes down your Dakini!" Alexis' monster now exploding. **(Laquari ATK: 1800 – 2100)** "But now, I return all three of my monsters back to my deck to summon **Gladiator Beast Heraklinos**!" **(ATK: 3000)**

"What kind of summoning was that!?" Bastion expressed in surprise.

"Contact fusion." I stated. "She'll probably explain."

"That's quite a monster you just summoned. What is that?" Alexis asked, herself looking confused at the last summon.

"Funny, Lex, I thought you knew every card there was to know." Mindy responded, sounding amused by her ignorance. "Contact fusion involves me fusing monsters without needing polymerization. It's awesome! Now, back to my turn! I set one card face-down and give it back to you!"

 _She has only one card left in her hand. So if Alexis can bait out Heraklinos' effect, then she'll be able to summon that Cyber Angel she brought back to her hand!_

"All right then, my move! Draw!" looking at her next card, she smiled "Good. I'll activate the spell card **Preparation of Rites**! With this card, I can add a ritual monster level 7 or below from my deck to my hand, and recover a ritual spell from my graveyard!"

"Nice move, Lex! Well, it would be, if I didn't have my awesome new monster here to stop you! I activate the effect of Heraklinos! I discard the last card in my hand, and I can negate a spell or trap card and destroy it!" now stopping Alexis' recovery play.

 _Wait, Alexis only has those two ritual monsters in her hand! If that face-down isn't something game-breaking, this duel may be over…_

"W-what?" she responded in shock. "You're stopping my searching with your only negation?" she then asked Mindy.

"Yep. I've been watching. The last two cards in your hand are both Cyber Angel ritual monsters. Without something to play them, they're just dead weight in your hand! I know you, Lex. I know how you duel, and how to stop you from making plays. The light made everything clear to me! It can do it for you, too!" Mindy explained.

It looked like it might be getting through, as well. Alexis was shaking again. It was hardly surprising, she was being outclassed at the moment by someone who everybody assumed was a bottom-tier duelist.

"I-I end my turn." Alexis then finished.

"All right! I draw! Now I'll activate the equip spell **White Veil**!" A bright glow now came over Heraklinos, turning the monster all white as it stared down Alexis. "Now, Heraklinos! Attack her directly!"

"You're gonna have to put a rain-check on that! I activate the trap card **Hallowed Life Barrier**! Now, by discarding a card, I can stop any damage that would be dealt to me this turn!" Alexis then declared, discarding Benten as cost. "I guess you should have saved your other card to stop this one!"

"A good move, Lex, but too little, too late. I activate the effect of my **White Veil**! When a monster equipped with it attacks, all your spell and trap cards get negated and destroyed! Now, continue your attack, Heraklinos!" leaving everyone to watch in shock as Alexis was then hit directly by the attack. **(Alexis LP: 1600 – 0)**

"Well, that's definitely not good." I commented.

"What do you mean? All that means is she's joining whatever club Mindy's in." Kyle inquired.

Looking back at him, I sighed to myself. "Wait for it." Was my only response.

"So what'd you think, Lex? You ready to see the light?" Mindy then asked enthusiastically.

"Yes, I am." Alexis then stated as she got back to her feet. "Suddenly what you were talking about makes sense. It's perfectly clear to me. Thank you, Mindy!" then seeing the two wave to Jasmine at the top of the building.

"Don't worry, soon the whole school will see the light!" Mindy declared, plainly excited.

Shaking my head at this, I couldn't help but remember what Sartorius said before:

" _I've won far more than that, boy. Though you have yet to see it."_

 _I guess that's what he meant. Who knew that she would actually be a capable duelist once he brainwashed her?_

However, it was clear that no one else appreciated just how dangerous the situation was, as they were still treating it like some kind of dramatic themed match between friends.

"I'll be along, you guys go back to the dorm without me." I then told the others, before moving to get to Jasmine, who was still observing from the top of the arena.

"Hello, Jasmine. Did you join that weird club Mindy's in?" I then asked her, gesturing to her clothes as I tried to keep things relatively normal-seeming.

"It's not a 'weird club', Marcus." She then chided me. "It's a premier organization that only accepts the best. The Society of Light is not something to joke about. You'll find out soon enough."

 _Seems like Jasmine got the Alexis treatment from Sartorius, though. Guess it was just Mindy who stayed nice._

"What do you mean by that?" I asked her, plainly confused.

"Because one of our newest members said she's looking to recruit you later. So look forward to that. Though, eventually, everyone will be a member." She then informed me, before going down to the arena floor to join Alexis and Mindy.

 _Newest members? Is that where she went? Brainwashing some other girl? It must mean Jasmine has a better deck too now. But who would want me to join them? No, she couldn't have beaten Miranda, that's just dumb. I barely beat her. Though, I still don't know what deck SHE is using now._

Turning and leaving, now bearing this new revelation in mind, I then saw there was some good deal of commotion in the yellow dorm building. "What the?" I started, headed over to the building, and went to my room, where the door sat open for some reason. Upon stepping into the doorway, I was greeted by a rather strange sight: Jaden, Syrus, Bastion, Kyle, Chazz, and at the center of the room, Aster Phoenix, looking like he was in charge of whatever was going on, my card case sitting on my bed with the contents scattered about.

"Get in here, Marcus. We need to talk." Aster stated calmly. I wasn't sure if that was a normal tone, or a calm before the storm. Either way, I didn't want to find out, turning toward the door.

Only to run into a wall of Hassleberry blocking my way. "Step inside, soldier." He told me, deadly serious at the moment. I could swear I saw his eyes in slits for a second there.

 _This can't be good._


	6. Chapter 6 - Future World Duel

_Well, this is awkward._

Looking around the room now that Hassleberry had pushed me into it, I then asked, managing to put on my most deadpan expression "All right, so what is this whole thing about, boys?"

"Take it easy, dude. We just wanna talk." Jaden stated from the other side of the room.

"Didn't think you were the kinda soldier who'd flee the field before the fight." Hassleberry stated from behind me, sounding rather disappointed.

Turning, somewhat annoyed, I then commented "Yeah, because seven-on-one is quite courageous, isn't it?"

"That's not what's happening here, Marcus." Bastion stated simply, before I turned back around to look at the rest of the group. Apart from Aster and possibly Chazz, the rest looked, strangely, concerned.

"Well then, what is it about?" I asked, now confused.

"Well, we'll start with these." Aster started, now holding out a stack of cards he was holding, gesturing to the box on my bed with the other. "Some interesting cards you've got here, Marcus." He then stated with no small amount of acidity. He clearly meant more than he was letting on. "Like this one." He then commented, flipping the top card of the stack to reveal exactly what I'd been afraid of:

Red Dragon Archfiend.

A synchro monster out of my collection.

"Oh, that." I started nonchalantly, looking around at the rest of them, as they each looked through a pile as well.

"Yeah, Marcus, some of these cards are pretty crazy. I've got no idea what these are!" Jaden exclaimed.

"Indeed. What exactly are these 'Synchro' and 'Xyz' monsters? If you have such fascinating cards, why do you not use them in your duels?" Bastion then inquired curiously, having laid out several cards he found interesting in the pile.

"Because they're fake." Aster declared. "There are no such cards as these! I already tested these cards earlier, and none of them work on my duel disk! So what's up with these?" He then demanded irritably.

Actually giving a sigh of relief, I remembered I'd forgotten my traditional format deck at home before I left, or I'd be giving him an explanation as to why I'd had a Destiny Hero – Disk Commander in my collection.

"Oh, that? Would you believe me if I said I were an amateur card designer? I was having fun coming up with my own designs." I stated.

"Afraid not. There are far too many different cards, and methodology here to have all come from the same designer. Unless you were some manner of genius in the design of duel monsters cards, then that would not be possible." Bastion observed.

"Oh? What makes you think I couldn't truly be an ingenious card designer?" I asked him, unamused.

"Because, I have been working and training with you for weeks, and I am certain if your creativity were at that level, then I would have noticed it during our training scenarios." Bastion retorted simply.

Damn him and his deductive reasoning!

"That's quite an assumption you're making there." I commented.

"Stop stalling! We both know that's a lie!" Aster shouted in response. "Nobody's got that kind of individual creativity! Even Pegasus himself didn't put that much into the original game when it first came out!"

"Perhaps you could demonstrate this capability for us, then." Bastion then invited, gesturing to my desk.

Heaving a sigh, I grumbled "Yeah, I figured that wouldn't work. All right, then. Gather round, boys, because _this_ is gonna be a long one." I then sat down on the edge of my bed and got ready to tell them the story of how I got here.

In the time I was telling the story of where I had come from, and how I'd gotten there, it seemed the same expression of incredulous surprise was being worn by all of them, as I went over the sequence of events that had led me into the test arena that day. I'd expected that, but hoped at least one of them might actually believe me when I told them this. The only real evidence I had to support this, however, were the cards they had already looked over.

"Do you actually expect me to believe that!?" Aster responded indignantly after I told the group of them the story of how I got to this world, and then to Duel Academy.

"Whether or not you believe it is of no concern to me. That's what happened." I responded, heaving a sigh.

"It sounds downright contrived, with how convenient everything was." Bastion commented after hearing my story.

"That is actually something I'm trying to figure out myself, Bastion. Since Sartorius can see the future, he was my first suspect." I answered them, looking over at Aster with the second part of my explanation.

"So, what, you want me to actually believe Sartorius is some kind of master manipulator trying to brainwash people?" Aster then blurted incredulously.

"Yes, I do." I replied, my expression deadpan. "Would I still be trying to convince you after what happened before if I didn't actually believe it?"

"To be fair to Marcus, I heard Mindy make mention of 'Master Sartorius' when she was talking to him earlier." Bastion then stated, having been right behind her when she spoke to me earlier.

"Yeah, that was a bit weird. She said something about Sartorius wanting her to 'test' prospective members." Chazz stated.

"So, if you come from somewhere where you've seen everything that happens…" Syrus started, seeming to hesitate a moment before asking his question "…what happens?"

"I don't think you're supposed to hear it, soldier." Hassleberry observed.

"It doesn't matter anyway." I stated. "Chazz was supposed to be Sartorius' first brainwashing victim. This time, he got Mindy. But it looks like the immediate consequence is the same right now. Besides, Jaden was supposed to lose the match to Aster."

"Well, what does that have to do with anything?" Aster asked, confused. "Even if a single word of what you said about Sartorius is true, what would Jaden losing our duel or not have to do with the future?"

"Because Jaden was supposed to undertake a journey of introspection after the power Sartorius inflicted your deck with rendered him unable to see his cards." I explained, looking around at the group of them. "Which means we'll be without what Jaden found at the end of that, as we go to stop the Society of Light."

"What are you so stressed about? Their 'Society of Light' is only four students and their 'Master'. Doesn't seem that dangerous." Chazz commented, shaking his head.

"Yes, for now." I told him. "But, even if the consequences are different, my guess is the pattern will remain consistent. After the first few members are added, it creates a domino effect that balloons membership. My guess, the blue dorm should be overtaken within the next couple of weeks."

Now looking at Aster, I stated simply, "You don't believe me right now. I get that. If it hadn't happened to me, I wouldn't believe it either. So I'll tell you what. Two weeks. Give me two weeks, and if nothing out of the ordinary happens, then not only will I shut up about it, I'll give you a direct apology for what I said about Sartorius. I'll even apologize to him as well."

Still looking at me with a suspicious expression, he spoke simply "Two weeks." Before turning on his heel and leaving the room.

"Well, now that he's gone. Anyone one else have any more questions?" I asked the group.

"I have one, Marcus." Kyle stated. "Why did you lie to us? Make us think you were just another student?"

"First thing, Kyle. I never actually lied. You ASSUMED I was a normal student. Besides, I just came in from another world and wasn't about to describe my circumstances to every random passer-by. I was laying low until I had a grasp on how I got here. Besides, I wasn't sure who I could trust with it." I explained to Kyle, though by the end of it, I was looking down at my feet, knowing the real reason I didn't want to tell them.

 _I was afraid they would reject me because of it. I was enjoying myself during the time I've been here, and didn't want it to end._

"While your circumstances are astounding, it is clear, at least, that _you_ believe it. Here is my question: how do these cards work, anyway?" Bastion then asked, holding up a series of white and black, starry cards.

At this, I could feel the corners of my mouth pulling into a smile, as something I'd wanted to do since the start of my time here was now at hand. "Allow me to show you. As Aster said, these won't work on the duel disks, on account they wouldn't recognize cards that technically don't exist yet, but if you're willing to go low-tech, I can demonstrate for you…"

Now, while sitting at the edge of my bed, I drew the rest of my regular deck out and put it together, smiling at this point, at least glad for the opportunity to get to do this. "So..." I started "…who's first?"

I didn't even need to ask, as my eyes shifted over to spot Jaden looking as if he were about to explode "Over here! I've been looking to try to duel these cards since we found them! I mean, the situation before was so serious, and that story was crazy long, but how often do you get to duel cards from the future!?"

 _Heh, wait for it, Jaden. Come to think of it, if I follow him to Venice later, I wonder if I could meet Yusei and Yugi as well. Then again, I could probably meet Yugi now if I went and looked for him._

Either way, I was looking forward to seeing more of those crazy cards Jaden used now as I accepted the challenge "You're on, Jaden! Let's clear some space and get my desk in the middle! This is gonna be awesome!" I then exclaimed enthusiastically.

"You boys seein' what I'm seein'?" I registered Hassleberry asking in the background.

"Yeah, it's like Jaden in stereo." Chazz commented irritably.

"Has he been holding that back all this time?" Kyle pondered aloud.

 _Of course I'm excited, Kyle! For the first time since I got here, I don't have to pretend to be someone else!_

Setting up a pair of chairs on either side of the table, I sat down at one. "All right, Jaden, should I start?" I asked while shuffling my deck.

"Of course! I wanna see all the awesome cards you've packed into that future deck of yours!" Jaden then exclaimed.

"All right, but not all of them are going to be all that new. There's a reason I already know how to play my deck so well." I then informed him.

"Game on!" both of us then said in unison, despite just being in a regular table duel. **(My LP: 4000 / Jaden LP: 4000)**

"All right, Jaden, alternate world duel rule number one! Both players start with 8000 life points rather than the usual 4000!" **(My LP: 4000 – 8000) (Jaden LP: 4000 – 8000)**

"Oh, okay." Jaden stated, sounding surprised.

"Rule number two! Since I start, I don't get to draw for my first turn! I'll start by activating the spell card **Charge of the Light Brigade**! You should know this one, I send three cards from the top of my deck to the graveyard, and I get a level 4 or lower lightsworn monster from my deck to my hand. First, I mill…" I started, now sending cards.

Jaden, looking at the Zephyros I send to the graveyard, asked aloud "What's that one?"

"You'll find out. Now, I add **Raiden, Hand of the Lightsworn** from my deck to my hand! Because of the effect of the **Wulf, Lightsworn Beast** I milled as well, I special summon it to my field!" **(ATK: 2100)** I then told him.

"This is just the same play he always does! I thought this was supposed to be some kind of future deck!" Chazz complained.

"Wait for it." I commented, amused by his whining rather than annoyed like I normally would get. "I'll now summon **Raiden, Hand of the Lightsworn**! **(ATK: 1700)** Now I'll use his effect, allowing me to send a further two cards from my deck to the graveyard. If a lightsworn monster is among them, he gains 200 attack points until the end of my turn." Nodding slightly at the sight of my **Metaion, the Timelord** entering the graveyard. "But that doesn't mean anything, Because now I'll tune my level 4 Raiden to my level 4 Wulf, in order to synchro summon…" taking a moment to look through my extra deck, I nodded "… **Stardust Dragon**!" **(ATK: 2500)** deciding to start off simple for my synchro monsters.

"Wait, what?" Chazz now asked, sounding confused.

"All right, I guess I'll have to explain it. There are special monsters that come out with synchro monsters called 'tuner' monsters. You need one to summon a synchro monster. All you have to do is add up the levels of the monsters you're using for the summon, and summon a synchro monster whose level is equal to the total level of the materials! It's simpler than I'm making it sound." I commented, before nodding a little "Basically, level 4 tuner plus level 4 non-tuner equals level 8 synchro."

"Quite interesting. That would add an entire new dimension to duelling level arithmetic!" Bastion then exclaimed upon realizing this.

"I had a feeling you'd like it." I commented with a smile. "Anyway, Jaden, I'll set one card face-down, then hand it to you."

Looking over the Stardust Dragon I just played, Jaden was clearly reading its effect, before nodding a little "Okay, cool card, bro! But I'm still gonna beat it! I draw! Now, I'm gonna summon **Elemental Hero Stratos**! **(ATK: 1800)** Using his effect, I'll get Elemental Hero Heat from my deck to my hand! Now I'll use the spell card **Polymerization**! Fusing my Stratos with Heat in order to create **Elemental Hero Nova Master! (ATK: 2600)** Now I'll have my hero attack your Stardust Dragon!"

Heaving a sigh, I responded "I was hoping not to use this so early, but I activate my trap card, **Treacherous Trap Hole**! Here's how it works! If I have no other trap cards in my graveyard, then I can destroy exactly two monsters on the field! So I'll destroy both of our monsters!"

"Why would he scrap his own dragon, after the effort he took getting it out?" Syrus then asked, confused.

"Because Stardust was going to be destroyed anyway, so he might as well take Jaden's hero with it." Bastion stated, the table currently surrounded.

"Well, I'm gonna throw down a couple of face-downs, then let you go." Now setting two cards face-down.

"That kind of trap is rather limiting, isn't it? Now you can't play another one." Chazz commented.

"I know. That's why it's literally the only trap card in my deck." I stated with a smile. Normally, I wouldn't give that kind of thing away, but it was a friendly duel at a table in my room.

"Wait, you don't have any other traps in that deck!?" Bastion asked incredulously.

"Nope. This always was sort of an 'all-or-nothing' deck, it's really the way I play. I've gotta admit, it's pretty nerve-wracking hoping I don't hit my spell cards when I'm sending cards to the graveyard." I told them, before drawing my first card.

"All right, I'll start my turn off by summoning **Lumina, Lightsworn Summoner**! **(ATK: 1000)** Then I'll play her effect, discarding **Plaguespreader Zombie** from my hand in order to special summon the **Raiden, Hand of the Lightsworn** sitting in my graveyard! **(ATK: 1700)** Now, I think I'll use Raiden's effect again, sending another two cards from my deck to the graveyard!" Groaning as I saw a Solar Recharge go to the grave. "See what I mean? Even with the deck this monster-heavy, I still have those kinds of mills! Yes, that's what I'll be calling them." I then pre-empted any attempt to question my wording.

"Now, Jaden, I believe you wanted to know what the **Blackwing –Zephyros the Elite** in my graveyard does. I guess I'll show you! I send the Lumina on the field back to my hand, and take 400 damage, in order to special summon it from my graveyard!" **(ATK: 1600) (My LP: 8000 – 7600)**

"Wait, you can just send a monster back to summon that for 400 points!" Chazz responded. "So no monster you summon will be less than 1600 points!"

"Unfortunately, no. I can only play the effect of my Zephyros once per duel, no matter how many might be in my deck. Now, I'll overlay my Raiden with my Zephyros in order to xyz summon **Minerva, the Exalted Lightsworn**!" **(ATK: 2000)**

"Wait, what summon?" Kyle then asked, looking over the black card I just played.

"Xyz summoning requires I use two monsters with the same level, and place them on top of each other, then placing the xyz monster atop them. The monsters basically become ammunition for the xyz monster's effect. Which I will now activate. I detach my Raiden in order to send three more cards from my deck to the graveyard!" Now watching as one copy of Judgement Dragon got milled, I looked back to my hand, before spotting Bastion looking it over.

"I have seen you holding this card in your hand before, but I have never seen you actually summon it. Is it that difficult to bring to the field?" Bastion then asked, looking at its effect. "Wait a moment, that's easy! You send so many cards from your deck to the graveyard, you've had plenty of opportunity to summon it! With such a powerful effect, why wouldn't you?" he then asked, confused now.

"Of course I have, Bastion. But there's a certain wisdom in not overextending and throwing down _everything_ you have. Even as reckless as I am, I know that." I responded to him, not wanting to tell him the real reason I got nervous about that card.

 _It's the lightsworns' ace monster, if I try using it in a proper duel here, it may not end well for anyone involved._

"Anyway, since I milled one lightsworn from her effect, I draw a card as well! I'll now attack you directly!" I informed Jaden.

"Oh, right, I'll activate my trap card, **A Hero Emerges!** Now, you have to take your pick of a card in my hand! If it's a monster, I get to summon it!" Looking at the two cards he held out, I picked the one on the right. "Sweet, thanks, now I can summon **Elemental Hero Bladedge!"(ATK: 2600)**

"All right, I'll stop my attack, then end my turn."

"Okay, my draw! I'll start with the spell card Pot of Greed! Allowing me to draw two more cards! Now I'll summon **Elemental Hero Ocean**! **(ATK: 1500)** I'll also activate the spell card **Miracle Fusion**! I'll use this to fuse the Nova Master and Stratos in my Graveyard, in order to summon **Elemental Hero Great Tornado! (ATK: 2800)** Now listen up, because this is where it gets interesting, when I summon Great Tornado, each of your monsters gets their points halved! **(Minerva ATK: 2000 – 1000)** Now, Ocean, attack his Minerva!"

Pondering a moment, I allowed the attack to go through. "When Minerva is destroyed by battle, I send another three cards from my deck to the graveyard, then I can destroy cards on the field up to the number of lightsworns I mill." Looking over the cards, I shake my head. "Bad luck, that. I'll use my one target to destroy your face-down!" **(My LP: 7600 – 7100)**

The rest of them looked surprised as Jaden's Mirror Gate shattered. "You're not gonna stop my attack getting through, bro? All right. Great Tornado and Bladedge, attack! **(My LP: 7100 – 1700)** You're up, I guess."

"He just sat and took a pretty big hit, luckily, they're playing by his rules." Bastion observed.

"All for the cause, my friend." I informed him, drawing for my turn. "All right then, now I'll put my master plan into motion. Since you want to see this happen so badly, and I have at least 4 different lightsworns in my graveyard (Lumina, Minerva, Wulf, Raiden) I summon **Judgement Dragon!" (ATK: 3000)**

 _Meanwhile, some distance away, Sartorius is probably getting a shiver down his back about now._

"Oh, that's your ace monster? Let's see it make your comeback, then!" Jaden challenged.

"Of course. I'll activate the effect of **Judgement Dragon**! I pay 1000 life points, in order to destroy every other card on the field!" **(My LP: 1700 – 700)** Now watching Jaden send his entire field to the graveyard. Taking a moment to count my graveyard, I nodded "Now, since I have at least 10 monsters in my graveyard, I special summon **Sephylon, the Ultimate Timelord! (ATK: 4000)**

"Great scott, 4000 points?" Bastion declared from my side.

"Yeah, and it gets better. I activate the effect of my Sephylon! He allows me to special summon a level 8 or higher fairy-type monster from my graveyard! Now, I'll summon **Metaion, the Timelord**! (ATK: 0) Its effects are then negated, but in exchange, it gains 4000 attack points as well!" (ATK: 0 – 4000)

"TWO monsters with 4000 points!? Off ONE summon?" Chazz seemed like he was about to cry foul.

"Yeah. Now, Jaden, if you can't stop the triple attack, I believe that would be game." I informed him. **(Jaden LP: 8000 – 0)**

"Whoa, those boss monsters are crazy! Zero to Eleven Thousand in one turn! Those have to be the best cards you've got, right!?" Jaden asked, clearly excited.

"Actually, they're the most powerful I've got, but best is a matter of perspective." I commented. "There are much more consistent decks, but I just hurtle on forward until either I win or I lose. Don't usually care which. So this is _my_ deck."

 _Might have to change that, with the stakes being potentially much higher and all._

"I can respect that." Jaden acknowledged with a nod "You've gotta play your game, not anyone else's right?"

"Yeah, that's about the size of it." I responded, before looking around the room. "All right, guys, Who's next?" I then asked. I wasn't just about to call it after one duel.

However, it was at this point that Syrus looked if he just remembered there was an exam the next day or something "Jaden! We forgot! We've gotta take care of the dorm building today!"

"Wait, that was today!? Ah, great! It's gonna take the rest of the day to do that!" Jaden then responded, sounding almost despairing at the prospect of cleaning up the dorm building.

"It can't be that bad, can it?" I found myself asking, confused by why they would be in such a state from the idea of cleaning up their dorm. After all, the Yellow Dorm never got that bad.

"You've clearly never stayed in the Red Dorm before." Bastion commented, shaking his head a little "That would be a big job if they had the whole of Slifer Red working on it."

"We'll put a rain check on any more duels until we're done, all right?" Jaden then asked, wanting to make it clear he intended to resume our duels where we had left off. At this, he, Syrus and Hassleberry took off quickly from my room, headed back toward the Red Dorm.

"Well, I suggest you go see Chancellor Crowler. If I know one thing about this school, word spreads quickly, regardless of whether or not you think they know. He'll find out sooner or later, so you might as well make it sooner." Bastion recommended.

"I'm going to have to say 'no' to that. You know Crowler's not exactly the most effective administrator, right?" I responded, shaking my head dismissively.

"Effective or not…" Bastion answered, sounding concerned about the precarious situation "…he is still key as to whether or not you can remain here. If he finds out from others that you aren't actually-"

"A student?" I interrupted him. "I actually am a legitimate student here. Full profile and everything. As long as I don't do anything to warrant expulsion, I'll be fine for what I have to do. Going to him would just be a waste of time at this point, and aggravate the administration for no good reason."

"Hmm, you may have a point. So what do you intend to do?" Bastion then asked, sounding curious what I had planned for my first move in this situation.

"Well, I suppose I plan to go help those guys out at the Red Dorm. After all, the more people are there to take care of it, the faster the job'll get done, right?" I then offered as an idea.

"Wait, what?!" Kyle and Chazz both reacted at the same time.

"Well, don't you live there, Chazz?" I then asked him, more to mess with him than anything, as I knew what his response would most likely be.

"I take care of my own room, but I'm not responsible for the rest of that hovel I'm forced to call home." Chazz then answered me, sounding disgusted I'd even made the suggestion that he help.

"Either way, I wasn't asking if you'd help, I was saying I'm going to. If you want to come with me, go ahead, but I'm going. Feels like a good distraction from everything going on." I admitted, rubbing the back of my head as I got up, taking a moment to fix my deck back to the way it normally was, placing the box back under my bed.

After we left the Yellow Dorm and were on our way, I stated, without looking back at the moment "Glad you decided to come with me, at least." Still a little disappointed that only one other person was willing to come and help.

"You wouldn't be so glad if you knew what we'll be walking into, Marcus." Bastion commented. "I'm mostly coming to repay a favour I owe them."

Even without seeing him, I knew he was shaking his head at the moment, as we slowly got to the Red Dorm. Seeing Jaden and Syrus currently out front, sorting out a couple of huge garbage containers they were apparently going to be using, I shook my head myself.

"You guys aren't seriously having to use _those,_ are you?" I asked, starting to wonder if Bastion was right, and I'd walked into something I wasn't expecting.

"What, these?" Jaden responded, noticing us once I spoke. "Yeah, they are a bit small for this, but we can't find the third one, so these two will have to do. So why are you here, bro? I told you we can't go back to duelling until we're done here."

"That's why we're here, bud." I responded to him, stepping over to the dorm and donning a pair of rubber gloves I'd brought with me. "Reinforcements for the effort!"

The relief on their faces was obvious, as they had been expecting to do the whole job themselves. "Well, we're not gonna say no to help. Let's get started!"

The task of cleaning up the dorm building, though one I'd expected to be small, took the better part of the whole day to actually accomplish, despite the relatively small size of the building, considering the state of the place. I'm starting to think I'll have to burn those clothes, since there's no way of getting the smell out.

"How did the place even get that bad!?" I finally vented, as we were just about finished, though I was having trouble remembering what colour these gloves originally were, layers of the filth we had been cleaning out creating strange colors spattered across the gloves.

I was, by now, thoroughly-drained, to the point where my arms felt as if they'd been hollowed out by something. The work hadn't been particularly hard, but it seemed that I wasn't as capable of prolonged labour like this as I had been before I'd ended up here.

"Well, there's a lot of us here in this small building. Shouldn't be too surprising…" Jaden observed.

"…yeah, a lot of punks who don't mind the filth will make a place get pretty nasty." Chazz commented, finally coming back to the dorm near the end of the day. After another moment, he then spoke to no one in particular again "Would you shut up, you're the nastiest out of all of them!"

Shaking my head a bit at this display, I had to remind myself why he did that as we looked over the building again. "Still, we did a pretty good job overall. The dorm should be clean for at least…"

"…a couple of days." Syrus finished for me. "These cleanings take place once a week. Different people get the job every week."

"You mean it's going to be that bad again next week!?" I exclaimed, incredulous.

Now with the rest of them around me laughing at this, Jaden nodded "Yeah, it doesn't take long around here. But at least it won't be our problem next week!"

Wait, what was that?

Turning to look over my shoulder at the woods nearby, I had the strangest feeling that I was being watched. It wasn't clear if it was true or not, but the feeling remained, regardless.

"All right, so, are we going to resume our duels?" Jaden then asked, looking over toward the Yellow Dorm where my private decks had been left.

Well, even as tired as I found myself after the effort, we DID say we would resume after we were done with the dorm!

Either way, as I went to bed after a series of duels that felt more like an endurance test than a friendly challenge, I had the feeling that Bastion was right: one way or another, things were going to get out.

But, right now, that was tomorrow. It was somewhat strange, really, but doing something as simple as helping those guys out with the mundane task of cleaning their dorm building up was actually a rather satisfying experience afterwards. At this point, I wasn't all that concerned that it would have any sort of impact on the way things were going.

Oh, if I only knew.


	7. Chapter 7 - Clash of Light

I'm starting to think two weeks was a little optimistic.

A mere few days after having to tell the group where I had actually come from, going into the weekend, the domino effect I had predicted had already happened for the most part, and a great many students had been accepted into Mindy's 'club'. It was either that, or a vast number of students were having problems with bleaching their uniforms.

In class on Friday, the Society students were all sitting together in one large group, taking up at least a third of the class. Some of them still seemed to be their normal selves, but others seemed a little off. Whether this had to do with differing circumstances of joining or not was something I'd have to figure out later.

Unfortunately, the trouble didn't stop merely with the number of students already joining the Society, as a number of conversations I could hear from nearby the white group told me that even in class they were trying to convince their friends to join up as well.

The predicted prospect of someone trying to recruit me into the group, however, had fallen short, as I hadn't had direct contact with any member of the Society since I spoke to Jasmine that day at the arena when Alexis joined.

"Well, that's just unsettling." Kyle commented as our group left class, once we had been finished for the day. "At this rate, the whole SCHOOL will be in that 'Society' by the time your two weeks is up."

"Why shouldn't we be?" Mindy then piped up from next to us as we attempted to leave. It was a little surprising, as she was normally hanging around with Alexis and Jasmine, typically flanked now by some other Society members. "We SHOULD all be together, don't you think? The whole aspect of ranked dorms is kinda divisive, right?" With her cheerful tone still intact, I was starting to see how she, with her upgraded deck, was perhaps MORE useful to Sartorius' plan than Chazz was.

Hell, if I didn't know better, _I_ might have bought into this whole thing by now.

"Unfortunately, that depends who's running it." I commented dryly, taking another few steps from them. "Well, just be careful, all right?" This had been directed to Mindy, though I doubt she'd listen right now.

Continuing to walk away, I could hear a tone of disappointment in her voice as she responded "Oh..." a moment before speaking "…the tryout offer is open to anyone who wants to try, okay?" At this point, I heard her walk away from the group. Perhaps she'd just wanted to re-iterate that once Kyle had commented on what was going on.

"Come on, guys." Jaden now gestured for the rest of us to follow him, as our group had fallen silent after Mindy had left.

Nodding at this, I followed the rest of them, taking a look over at the Blue Dorm building, which was still visibly blue at the moment. "It looks like we've still got a little time. They haven't re-painted the outside of the Blue Dorm." I observed, "We need a way to actually beat Sartorius, boys."

"You know a lot about what's going on…" Kyle started to observe, looking visibly worried "…and you knew all this was going to happen, if in a different way…" now turning back to me, he stopped walking "…so I've gotta ask: why didn't you try to stop it?"

At this, the rest of the group simply stopped, turning to face me, as if each of them had been thinking of asking this question, but hadn't yet brought themselves to do so. Each of them seemed curious now as to why I hadn't done so. "Yeah, bro. If you knew he was gonna start brainwashing people, why wouldn't you cut it off before it happened?" Jaden had decided to add to the question.

"Well, unfortunately…" I started, now having to explain myself "…by the time I actually knew he was on the island, he'd already gotten to his first victim. So stopping it from happening beforehand wasn't an option." Taking a moment, I shook my head "Now, we have to concentrate on actually beating him before whatever he has in mind this time can succeed."

"But how DO we actually beat him? Is it the same way he recruits people?" Bastion now asked me, putting the pieces together rather quickly.

"Exactly. It's the same thing in reverse: You have to beat the member you're trying to help in a duel. Though to beat a light-wielder, you have to beat them in what is basically a shadow game. It's the same idea, but much higher stakes. Any true duel against Sartorius would be far more dangerous than curing any one member of the Society would be." I informed them as to the true nature of the challenge that would await.

"That's why I've been somewhat hesitant to take the fight to him. We need to be ready to take him down in one move in order for this to work." I admitted, as I was unsure if I would be able to defeat him myself, my strategy more likely to barrel into a trap than any of the others.

"Yeah, we've been there before. It's a tough decision, bro." Jaden nodded understandingly, before adding "But we're gonna have to put a stop to it eventually, right?"

"Yeah." Chazz commented, standing a little ways away from the rest of the group. "I was listening to a couple of them talk earlier, ranting about 'the light'. From what I've heard, they've gotta be brainwashing at least some of those guys."

"Exactly." I agreed. "Even if they don't all seem like it yet, eventually every member of the Society will be believing the same thing. Even if they're not ranting about it, it'll be there."

At this, however, I felt Chazz grab ahold of my coat "You knew that, and you STILL let Alexis take Mindy's challenge?! Why didn't you do something about it!?" He then demanded. I knew he had a thing for Alexis, but I forgot it was this powerful. "They went and turned her into an ice queen!"

Bringing my arms up, then down to break his grip on my coat, I shook my head "Do you think she'd have actually taken me seriously if I'd warned her? You didn't take it seriously even AFTER she lost that duel. If I had warned her, she'd have only been MORE motivated to take her challenge."

"YEAH, ONLY SHE MIGHT HAVE WON IF SHE KNEW THE STAKES!" Chazz then shouted at me, looking downright livid.

"Calm down, private…" Hassleberry started, attempting to defuse the situation.

"You're right." I started quietly.

"No, I'm not gonna calm down, Bumbleberry! What's the point of knowing what happens if you don't lift a finger to stop it!?" Chazz then demanded angrily.

"That's going a bit far." Bastion started.

"You're right!" I snapped back, this time loud enough for all of them to hear. "You're right, Chazz. I 'knew' no one would believe me if I warned them, so I didn't even try to take action. I 'knew' Alexis would definitely win against Mindy, so I wasn't worried that she was getting recruited. I 'knew' Sartorius would be onto me from the beginning, so I didn't take immediate action to try to stop him! I thought I knew what I was doing, trying to let events play themselves out so that I wouldn't have to step in and stop it. I'm going to have to change that, or we're going to lose here."

"Not much good, figuring that out now." Chazz observed bitterly. "We still have most of Blue recruited into the White Dorm. Now our job's going to be much harder than if you'd found a way to stop him before the whole thing got out of hand!"

"Actually…" I started, getting an inkling of an idea, "…it may not be that difficult."

"Have you gotten something?" Syrus now asked hopefully.

"Yeah. At least, I think so. The Society is a cult. One that completely relies on its cult leader to keep the members directed. Regardless of the number of members, if you remove Sartorius, the man with the ultimate plan, from the equation, then the followers will scatter and be much easier to bring back from their state." I suggested, stepping over to the door of the Yellow Dorm building, attempting to mull over an internal plan to actually get myself into that position. "I'll see you guys later, I've got something to take care of."

After all, I'm the one in the best position to actually stop him, right?

"A fair point, assuming everything works the way you think it does." Bastion stated with a nod. "However, if things vary, the situation may become worse."

Not sure what can happen for things to get WORSE.

Once I returned to my room, I took some time to think things over, the idea in my head starting to come to a more definite form, deciding on the best way to take down Sartorius and thus end this absurdity.

A short while later, with me now on the way over to the Red Dorm to go over the details of my plan, a familiar voice called out from behind me, "Marcus!"

A quick heel-turn brought me face-to-face with Miranda, who was currently beaming at me as if she were feeling on top of the world at the moment. "Oh, hey Miranda. I haven't seen you in a while. I was starting to wonder if you'd up and left on me."

Shaking her head with surprising energy, she exclaimed "No! No! Not at all! I'd never do that!"

Mentally contrasting the girl in front of me with the calm and quiet girl I'd duelled a while back, I attempted to ponder exactly how this happened. "I believe you." I then responded, before asking "Did you call out for me to ask something, or did you just want to see me?"

"A bit of both." She then answered, smile not budging. "I finally got permission from Master Sartorius to ask you to join the Society of Light! Please do!"

At this, my mood turned. "Oh, gave you permission, did he? Why might that be?" I asked her, annoyance plain in my voice.

"Does it matter?" She then asked me plainly, still seeming bright from getting to ask me this, though looking as if she hadn't expected this reaction. "We can hang out together like we did before I joined up! Come on and come to the arena so I can give you your tryout duel!"

Suddenly getting an idea from the last part of her statement, I nodded "All right, I'll take that challenge, on one condition: I get to pick the opponent for my tryout."

At this, her face fell, looking as if I'd just outright turned her down. "Wait, this was supposed to be ME bringing you in! Who did you have in mind, Mindy? I heard you were talking to her before!" Sounding somewhat paranoid now, as if she'd suggested a date and I'd decided to take someone else to the same place.

Not the same thing at all.

"Actually, I want to duel Sartorius." I then told her directly. "If you want me in the Society, then I'll only accept a trial from your leader."

Hearing this, her look switched now to confusion as she tried to piece it together "You want to test yourself against Master Sartorius? That's not what I was expecting."

"How about this?" I then offered to her "If you bring me there and I have a trial against Sartorius and win, then I'll duel you afterward for a second trial. Would that work?"

 _After all, once I've beaten Sartorius, I could save her as well. Win-win at that point. After all, I wasn't going to lose, I couldn't._

 _I can't believe I didn't do this before: I would end this whole absurdity in one swift strike!_

"All right! If you lose to Master Sartorius, you'll be in the Society anyway and I can have my duel with you after anyway as a friendly game, right?" Miranda then asked as we started to walk toward the dorm building, where my plan was now going into motion. She was going to have to tell him about the change of plan, and I would get my chance to beat him before things get worse!

I'd just have to tell the guys later on that I'd taken care of it.

"Of course. Why wouldn't I?" I agreed with her. "I never saw your own trial duel, what happened?" I then asked as we continued.

"Oh, that? Well, Jasmine was the one who got me into the Society, but I don't think the how is really that important. Do you?" She asked as we continued.

Oh, right, they don't typically remember what happened before their induction into the Society.

"I suppose not, though I'm somewhat curious what deck she was using." I admitted as the two of us continued, trying to fish out some information about another of our opponents as we walked.

"Not important. I've changed up mine though, so you're in for a surprise during our duel!" she declared proudly, the two of us not taking much longer to get to the still-Blue (for the moment) Dorm building.

As we entered the building, there were a few other Society members in the front entrance hall, most of whom looked over my yellow uniform with what I would assume was a mix of confusion and a sense of their own superiority. Most of them I doubted even knew who I was, since I hadn't made many grand moves to make myself noticed.

One of the few exceptions was a man I thought for all the world wouldn't be on the island.

"Mr Schmitt?" I asked in surprise, seeing the man who'd been out with a headache that had lasted over a month now just standing there calmly, even acknowledging me when I addressed him.

"Ah, Marcus! How are you faring? You seem to be doing well!" he then told me in a friendly tone.

Odd, I was certain he'd found me grating and annoying when he'd given me my exam, and more so afterwards.

"Even more for you, sir!" I found myself saying respectfully. Actually, I was relieved he was able to just have normal conversations and he looked to be all right. "I thought you were out with medical trouble."

"I was!" he answered happily "But that was before Master Sartorius found me. He managed to help with the headaches when nothing else would! Great man, that guy! So, what are you guys here for, your trial duel? Wouldn't be looking for me to test you again, would you? I might have to use my real deck this time."

"Actually, I'm here to challenge Sartorius for my test duel!" I declared, loud enough for the whole hall to hear.

I was stunned: the whole hall had suddenly gone dead silent, every eye had turned over to our position and then, a laugh, one that carried among all the Society members present except Miranda.

"Seriously?" One member asked between laughs. "Master Sartorius has far too much to do to be bothering with some random Yellow like you!"

"On the contrary..." A calm, ethereal voice then spoke from the top of the stairs at the end of the hall. The sound of his voice immediately silenced the laughing before everyone seemed to be standing at attention. "…I would be more than happy to accept young Mister Kolstet's challenge. Provided he is aware that should he lose, he will join the Society of Light."

"Yes, I'm aware of what your trial duels involve. I'm also not accepting the duel with anyone but you yourself, so please don't try to pass it off to a third party." I directly told him.

"Pass it off? Why 'Marcus', she could not be dissuaded, despite your low number of duels since arrival, she sees something in you that most of the instructors do not." Sartorius informed me, at which point I turned to her and she simply looked embarrassed at now having the attention of the Society and I on her. "Though I wonder, why have you not been drawn to conduct more duels than you have? Perhaps there is something about you that you cannot adequately describe." Sartorius then continued, now sounding as if making a point, but not one that I could see.

I kept to myself when it came to duels, trying not to conduct too many challenges, but that was me trying to keep a low profile! I have a practically flawless record of duelling here, both on these disks and on simple tables. Admittedly, I still did that more because it was easier, and one could get more rounds in without having to find an open space and make a lot of undue noise.

"If you have a point beyond the one atop your head, please get to it." I then commented, not amused by his current attitude.

Though, at this point, it was clear they weren't at all amused with me either, Alexis in particular having an expression I never thought I'd see on her, even with her brainwashed like this. "If you're going to disrespect Master Sartorius, then you can just get out!"

"Please, Miss Rhodes. As if I would be shaken by such petty remarks. My point, Mister Kolstet, is that you haven't identified stakes for if you have won, beyond your promise to Miss Hastings to duel her again." He then stated, already knowing somewhat what we'd talked about.

Seriously, did he BUG his members or something?

"True. But I already know what I want, and I'm assuming you already do as well." I then responded to his request, smiling across at the brainwashed man currently corrupting the students.

"Of course. But that will not happen, so I am simply giving you a chance to name something else you might wish should you win." Sartorius then clarified, clearly assuming I'd never actually be able to push the Light from him.

"All right then, how about this? If I win, then you tell me what I want to know. No tricks, no nonsense. Just the truth." I then asked him, deciding there was indeed something else I could get out of this, though driving the light from him would ultimately be the best reward for being able to pull this off.

"Very well, then, Mister Kolstet. I accept your challenge. But do not be surprised if you hear something you do not wish to should you win." Sartorius then stated calmly before going back up the stairs.

A few moments after he went back upstairs, most of the Society members went back to whatever else they were doing, though Alexis clearly had something else to say at the moment.

"I don't know what you think you're doing here, Marcus, but you're nuts if you think this ends in any way other than you in white." Alexis commented with a smirk, this sentiment seeming to be shared by the rest of the White Dorm apart from Miranda, who merely looked curious.

"See you there." I told the group of students assembled, before turning on my heel and making my way over to the duel arena, fully prepared to put an end to this whole thing right now.

On my way to the arena now, I was able to spot Jaden and the others coming down the path toward the building behind me, calling out to me "Marcus! Wait up!"

The group was everyone I expected to see: Jaden, Syrus, Bastion, Chazz and Hassleberry. However, there was someone else I hadn't expected to see at this point: Aster.

"I didn't expect you to be here." I commented to him before anyone else spoke.

"Really? You give a timetable of two weeks, and it happened in a few days. It's pretty convincing." Aster observed, not looking as pissed at me as he usually had. "So, going to duel your girlfriend?" he asked with a smirk.

When this question was asked, Jaden added "Yeah, what's going on, bro? I heard Miranda found you in the woods and challenged you to a duel, is that where you're going?"

Shaking my head, I looked over the group of them and declared "Don't you worry, boys. I'm going to the duel arena right now and ending this nonsense, today! I'm going to beat Sartorius and cut this whole thing off at the pass like I should have the day he showed up!"

There was a general reaction of surprise going into mild shock from the rest of the group, except for Chazz, anyway. "About time you decided to act." Chazz commented, now leaning against a tree with a slight nod.

"Do you really think you can do it?" Kyle asked nervously.

"Of course he can!" Jaden exclaimed, doubtless in an attempt to be encouraging.

"I agree. Out of anyone, he is in the best position to actually defeat Sartorius at the moment." Bastion agreed. However, he seemed to be hesitating to say something else, though I was unsure what that might be.

"Well, if we're all in agreement, then let's get to the arena. I get the feeling I won't exactly be the crowd favourite." I stated, now resuming my walk toward the duel arena.

Once we got there, and I was on one side of the arena, the Society of Light members began flowing into the seats on the other side of the arena. They weren't the all-encompassing combination of Blue and Yellow that they pretty much were from my memory yet, but the number of them was still surprising and impressive.

Once most of them had entered, they began jeering and taunting me from the seats, though most of the actual words were lost in the overall shouting. Some things like 'lose' were obvious, but I still didn't quite get most of it. Strangely, Miranda was currently sitting with Jaden and the others: likely the only Society member who actually wanted me to win.

Did she know something the others didn't? Or was she simply more independent-minded than the rest of them?

Either way it didn't matter, as the stands fell completely silent upon a solitary figure entering the arena: Sartorius. As he moved calmly to the other side of the arena, he spoke simply "There is still a chance for you to simply resign, 'Marcus'. Why subject yourself to such a contest as this?"

He was messing with me. That was all right, though: there was no way I was letting him get to me.

I wasn't going to duel him, I was going to crush him with overwhelming force and defeat him before his mind games could get to me.

"No, that's perfectly all right, Sartorius. I can relax once I've won, and you've finally told me the truth. My next duel with Miranda should be fun." I responded simply, shuffling my deck idly.

"Oh, I do not cast doubt on your skills, Marcus. I merely state that there is more involved here than simply a duel, or simply whether or not you join the Society of Light. You know what I am talking about." Sartorius then told me in his ethereal tone.

"Indeed I do." I answered him calmly, smiling a bit at this. "In fact, I told them about it already."

Raising an eyebrow, Sartorius then responded "Indeed? Your trust in your fellow students is admirable. However, I doubt you were able to tell them the whole story, since you do not know it yourself. Now, shall we begin, and see if fate is on your side?"

"Oh, I have no doubt it is! Let's do this!" **(My LP: 4000 / Sartorius LP: 4000)**

"I'll start us off! I draw! I'll begin with the spell card **Charge of the Light Brigade!** Sending the top three cards of my deck to the graveyard…" Looking them over, I scowled at the sight of a Solar Recharge going to the graveyard alongside the two lightsworn monsters I hit. "…to add **Jain, Lightsworn Paladin** to my hand, whom I will now summon! **(ATK: 1800)** After that, I set one card face-down, and end my turn! At which point, I send two more cards from my deck to my graveyard!"

"Ah, that monster. I wonder, do you notice how often that particular monster comes into play? Did you consider there is some meaning to that?" Sartorius asked me, clearly starting on something.

"None whatsoever." I retorted abruptly. I wasn't about to give him a chance to worm his way into my head. "Coincidence, that's all."

"Oh? Dear boy, fate has a hand in everything that happens. Everything has a deeper meaning, regardless of whether you dismiss it as coincidence. But perhaps it is better if I simply show you." Sartorius lectured to me, thinking he was being intellectual.

"You're more than welcome to try, Sartorius." I offered, shrugging across at him.

"Very well. It is my move." Drawing a card with all the care of someone playing against an opponent who'd never even seen the game before, Sartorius seemed rather detached at the moment. "I shall begin with three cards face-down, then I activate the spell card **Cup of Ace**! You are, of course, aware of how this works? If you have forgotten…" he started, as the figure of the card over his head began to rotate, "…then you simply tell the card when to stop, and the effect is determined by whether it is right-side-up or upside-down. Of course, there is only one possible result: that which was decided by destiny."

Chuckling a little to myself, I nodded "Yeah, I'm aware of how it works. It's so simple it's downright absurd. Aaaaand…" I started, waiting for the right position "…stop!"

As the card reached its upside-down position, it froze. "Very good. The card is upside-down, meaning my opponent gets to draw two cards. Take your prize, Marcus." He said this in a rather condescending tone – one that made it sound as if it was actually still his gain, yet I had no idea how.

Drawing my two cards, I looked them over as Sartorius resumed his turn. "Now, I shall summon **Arcana Force III – The Empress! (ATK: 1300)** Now, the same rules still apply, so you may choose your fate once again, Marcus."

Shaking my head in annoyance, I waited once again for my opportunity. "Very well then. Stop!" I declared, the card once again stopped in the upside-down position. Timing this was a joke with how slowly the cards spun, so I was starting to wonder now what his angle was: did he WANT to lose?

"Oh, dear. It seems that destiny is kind to you in this duel. Now, each time you summon a monster, I must send a card from my hand to my graveyard. Most unfortunate. With that, I shall end my turn." Sartorius then informed me. It still seemed as if he was not taking me seriously, and that smug expression on his face was really starting to piss me off.

However, the mindless peons behind him were still cheering as if he were kicking my ass at the moment, despite soundly thrashing himself with his own cards. The morons!

"All right then, my turn! Draw!" My hand, now containing seven cards, had more than enough that I was left with multiple options for putting a stop to Sartorius' scheme before it really got rolling.

"Allow me to venture a guess at your move…" Sartorius then started "…you will summon a lightsworn monster, and when I attempt to react to your summon, you will use that Royal Decree you have face-down in order to stop my response, correct?"

"It seems everyone's convinced that I don't change my deck around between duels." I commented, slightly amused at the assumption. "I'll begin by tributing Jain in order to summon **Gragonith, Lightsworn Dragon**! **(ATK: 2000)"**

"Well then, prove me wrong, Marcus! I activate the trap card **Bottomless Trap Hole**! It will not only destroy your monster, but remove it from play as well!" Sartorius then declared, looking over at my face-down card as if daring me to prove him right.

I couldn't help but smile a bit, "Sorry, Sartorius, but I'll have to disappoint you. From my hand, I activate the spell card **My Body as a Shield**! I pay 1500 life points in order to negate the destruction of my monster and retain its presence on my field! **(My LP: 4000 – 2500)** Also, since I normal summoned a monster, your Arcana Force III forces you to discard a card!"

As he started to send his last card from his hand to his graveyard, Sartorius seemed to feign a sense of loss "Oh well, unfortunately, it is the price one pays for the whims of destiny."

What is going on with this guy!? I'm kicking his ass, and he seems completely fine with it! Is he even being affected by the Light of Destruction right now!?

"You think so? Well, it seems like your 'destiny' is directing you toward a rout at the moment!" I vented at him, making my frustration known.

"To the uninitiated, it may appear so. However, when one knows all the factors at play, then things take on a far different meaning." Sartorius stated cryptically.

"All right then. Now, since my Gragonith is on the field now, it gains 300 Attack and Defence points for every lightsworn in my graveyard, giving it a current boost of 900 points! **(ATK: 2000 – 2900)** All right then, Gragonith, attack his Empress!"

Looking at his two face-downs, I couldn't help but wonder if he would try to stop this play, as my current plan was completely clear in my head.

A little surprised that the attack went through, I watched as the dragon destroyed his monster, now starting to wonder what exactly his face-downs were. **(Sartorius LP: 4000 – 2400)**

"Is that all?" Sartorius asked, completely unfazed by the situation.

"Afraid not! Now I activate my face-down card: **Call of the Haunted**! Using this trap card, I revive J **ain, Lightsworn Paladin! (ATK: 1800)** If that summon is not opposed, then Jain will now attack you directly, as it is still my battle phase!"

I was even more surprised that this attack went through, though Sartorius was again, completely unaffected by the situation. **(Sartorius LP: 2400 – 600)** "Any further surprises? You do, after all, still have a full hand of five cards. Or, perhaps, could you have won already were you more certain of my face-down cards?"

Glaring across at Sartorius, I knew he understood the way I duelled well enough to know I had more things I could have done if I wanted to explode at him, but considering the stakes of this duel, I had to be more careful than I normally would be, having to hold the call of the haunted, so I couldn't summon the Guardian of Order I presently had in my hand.

"I'll set one card face-down and end my turn." I then informed him, before stating "With Jain and Gragonith on my field, I now send my top five cards to the graveyard." Placing my next five cards in the graveyard, my smile remained in place "Since I sent two more lightsworns to the graveyard, Gragonith gains an extra 600 points! **(ATK: 2900 – 3500)"**

"Indeed. A powerful dragon. However, with Jain no longer in your graveyard, your dragon is slightly weaker." **(ATK: 3500 – 3200)** Sartorius saw fit to remind me of as he began his turn. "Tell me, Marcus, what do you know of destiny?" When I didn't answer him immediately, he resumed speaking "You seem to be of the belief that fate has no bearing on your actions, yet everything you have done since arrival has been the work of someone else: your arrival here, your understanding of things you should not, the effect you have had on others around you, all constructs of someone else's design."

"That doesn't even begin to make sense! I've done everything since arrival on this island on my own!" I retorted, waiting for him to make his move.

"Very specific choice of words, 'Marcus'…" Sartorius observed with a smirk. "…you are at least aware of that much. I will now activate one of my face-down cards! **Suit of Sword X**!" As this card as well began to rotate, Sartorius smirked "Now, let's see you win this 'childish game' once again!" he then challenged.

Shaking my head a bit, I commented "This again? I'd think you would eventually learn that isn't going to work! Stop!" I then directed. However, the card kept rotating until it landed right-side up.

"What a shame. It seems your 'timing' is not as impeccable as you thought. Now, due to the right-side-up effect of my Suit of Sword X, all of your monsters are destroyed!" Sartorius declared, before both of my monsters were shattered. "Now, I summon **Arcana Force I – the Magician! (ATK: 1100)"** As the card began to rotate, I heard him challenge me "Go ahead and try again. Do you think you can outsmart destiny?"

Shaking my head in irritation, I then watched it carefully, waiting until it was in the perfect position before saying "Stop!"

I had timed it just after it passed its top-most position: there was nowhere for it to go but the bottom, which it did quite easily. "Very good, it seems you are still in the duel after all. Now, whenever a spell card is played, you gain 500 life points! However, you will still have to take the magician's attack!" before I was then struck by the creature. **(My LP: 2500 – 1400)**

"Do you understand now?" Sartorius asked, amused "You may believe you have control over choices that lack meaning, but when it comes down to the most important things, destiny is the one in control!"

Sighing heavily at this, I shook my head again "Seriously? You keep talking about destiny, and yet all I'm seeing is sub-par play with cards based on luck. At this point, you've no cards in hand, one face-down and a monster with low attack power that gives me life points if I play a spell card. If this is what having destiny on your side looks like, I think I'll stick with what I'm doing." Telling him this, I couldn't help but smirk across at him.

I was ending this right now. On this turn.

"I draw!" I then declared, despite the jeers from the audience, looking at the card. "It seems destiny might have chosen it's favourite, then. I summon **Lumina, Lightsworn Summoner**! **(ATK: 1000)** Now, I activate her effect, sending a card from my hand to my graveyard in order to revive **Lyla, Lightsworn Sorceress! (ATK: 1700)"** With the two monsters now on my field, I got ready to summon my game-ending monster, Guardian of Order, well, at least once I'd removed that last face-down from his field. "Now, I'll activate her effect-"

"Don't get ahead of yourself, Marcus. You have stepped directly into my trap! **Torrential Tribute**!" Sartorius then commented, now revealing his last face-down.

Was it just me, or did he play more staple traps than anyone else I'd seen here?

Was he just toying with me right now?

He'd regret that.

"Now, all monsters on the field are destroyed. With three cards left in hand, and your normal summon spent, I wonder, is there a card you can defeat me with, or did you require to over-extend yourself to win?" Sartorius then asked me, a smug tone clearly expecting me to not have a retort. "Or perhaps your means to victory is such that you do not wish to use it?"

I did have one card left: my face-down had been a bluff: a Solar Recharge without anything to discard. A perfect way to stop me from being able to play the Gorz I still had in hand. The Guardian of Order was now dead weight in my hand, which meant my only route to victory now was the Judgement Dragon I hand in my hand, but I was still trying to figure out just what it would do were I to summon it, particularly against Sartorius of all people.

"Come now, 'Marcus', are you going to make a move, or do you yield your turn?" Sartorius then asked, clearly enjoying my inaction and indecision.

The jeering from the stands had grown like a roll of thunder, seeming to echo through the arena, and through my head, a drumbeat that only served to intensify my frustration with the current situation, since he'd stopped my conventional win condition.

There was nothing for it: either I play the Judgment Dragon and win this turn, or I risk him drawing into any monster of use and pulling it out from under me next turn!

I wasn't having that.

"All right then!" I started, glaring across at the man I aimed to rid of the Light's influence, right here, right now. "Since I have four or more lightsworn monsters in my graveyard, I call to the field my **Judgement Dragon! (ATK: 3000)"** I could feel the wind of its summoning now whipping past me as the creature took shape right in front of me.

There was no more restraint: I couldn't afford it. I had to end this now.

"Very impressive." Sartorius complimented, though his smirk seemed to expand "Come! Let us see its power up close!"

"You want it!? You've got it!" I declared angrily, "Judgement Dragon, attack! Bring this home, Judgement Hammer!" A bright beam of light now surrounded Sartorius as the attack struck home. **(Sartorius LP: 600 – 0)**

Holy crap.

I actually did it.

I won!

I beat Sartorius already.

It felt… actually, it felt anticlimactic to be honest. For it to be over already, I couldn't believe it.

But that hardly mattered, now did it?

Smiling still, I looked down at my duel disk to take my cards off it when I noticed something: I was GLOWING!

It was only slightly, and it was just for a moment after I looked, but it had been there! A white aura had been around me for a moment there. Was that because I summoned Judgement Dragon in this duel!?

It had sounded like the group were starting to cheer for me, but must have noticed the glow emitting from me for a short time, which had led to complete silence from them.

From the other end of the arena, despite the shock of the Society members at seeing their master lose like that, they soon calmed down, as everyone heard the quiet laugh that grew in volume from Sartorius on the far end of the arena. "Very good, 'Marcus', you defeated me soundly! Such a powerful monster is, of course, guaranteed to shift the outcome to your favour."

Seeing no change whatsoever in Sartorius, I wanted to ask something, but could not find the words, in my dumbfounded surprise. Seeing this, he asked "What? Did you expect some manner of alteration from defeating me in a duel? Unfortunately for you, it is not that simple. After all, how can you hope to drive the Light from me, when _you_ are affected by it as well?"

Wait, what?

Sensing my current feeling, Sartorius smirked from across the field "You did, of course, declare that I would have to tell you the truth should you win. Since you did, I will do so. Unless you wished that I do so privately. But, since the Society will know regardless, you would only be keeping the truth from your friends."

Heaving a sigh, I knew there was no way they would trust me if I actually tried to keep that a secret, I shook my head "Go ahead! What are you talking about? Why can't I actually win, then?"

Smiling across at me, he responded "It is quite simple, 'Marcus'. Firstly, your arrival in this world, while I did see it coming, I did not aid your entry. Secondly, I wonder, what did you see just before you arrived?"

Thinking on this a moment, I heaved a sigh "I saw a wall of hard light that tried to crush me against the barrier." I had to inform him, starting to get what he was getting at, and knowing without the truth, nothing would be properly understood.

"Ah, but what if that were not 'hard light' as you put it, but simply THE Light? The pressure that drove you into the world, while entering with you as you did so. Allow me to ask you another question: how many people have you defeated in duels since you arrived? Not counting simple table duels?" Sartorius then asked, clearly pushing me toward the conclusion he had come to without directly saying it.

"Not many, just Mr. Schmitt and Miranda…" I reflected aloud, looking from the Society stands to the group, where the whole was looking surprised and confused at the conversation we were having.

"Indeed?" Sartorius asked aloud. "Also, the same two people who both had sudden changes to their mind afterward? Mr. Schmitt developed quite the headache after you defeated him. It lasted quite a while, and medical science could not determine the cause. That would be because the Light is not something you can assail with science. So when he came to me, I was able to clear his mind quickly. That is when I understood what you were doing: you inflict the Light upon those you defeat, Marcus. However, because you are unaware of it, it merely intensifies their immediate mental state when you defeated them. Mr. Schmitt's brief irritation turned to a strong, lasting headache, while Miss Hastings' curiosity about her opponent turned into a much stronger intrigue, bordering on obsession."

Turning to look at Miranda, she looked rather confused, though the rest of them seemed to be quite shocked by this whole development. I couldn't really blame them for that, though.

I was still trying to figure out if he was telling the truth or not.

"That's nonsense!" I blurted out angrily.

"Is it, though?" Sartorius asked with a smirk. "You told me to tell you the truth. That is all I am doing. That is the same reason I did not seek to recruit you into the Society. After all, you were already in a position to bring others into the Light even without my guidance! The value of manipulating the power structure to place you here was actually greater than I could have anticipated. You have been walking the path of destiny all this time, and I look forward to seeing where you will go from here. Will you join the Society, now knowing that you serve its interests regardless? Or will you attempt to defy destiny and merely bring more misfortune upon your friends from the inside? Take your time, I am not going anywhere." Giving a light laugh, he now walked off of the arena floor.

"Marcus?" a voice now asked from behind me. Turning to see Miranda standing directly in front of me now, I was somewhat taken aback.

"Miranda. I think he might actually be-" I started to get out, before she shook her head.

"Don't be dumb, Marcus. I'm not interested in you because of any silly thing like that. I like you, you dummy! Now, let's have our duel!" she then declared.

At this, Sartorius gave what sounded to be a surprised reply "Oh, that IS correct. Your friend did wish to duel you once ours had been decided. Once again, the same condition applies: should you lose, you will join the Society of Light. However, the outcome is of little consequence. You are free to do whatever you wish."

No wonder he lost so easily!

He didn't actually care about our duel, since I CAN'T drive the Light from him, just like I can't drive it from Miranda now.

Winning might mean making Miranda's state of mind even worse, yet losing would simply mean putting the label on something that's already there.

This whole thing is absurd!

"All right then. Let's go. I did say I'd duel you, now didn't I?" I informed her, then put my deck back together, re-shuffled it, and drew my initial hand.

"Marcus! What are you doing!?" Jaden the called out from the stands, surprised I was actually getting ready to accept her challenge.

Turning to them, I stated simply "Carrying out what I already promised to do." I knew she wouldn't let me out of this, even if I tried to leave. She had been looking forward to this, and I wasn't going to let her down.

"If he was telling the truth…" Aster then started from the stands, a short way behind Jaden "…then you're playing right into his hands!"

"If he was telling the truth, then it makes little difference, now, does it?" I asked him, though I was rather surprised by him being the one trying to offer advice.

"Let's duel!" both Miranda and I then declared. **(My LP: 4000 / Miranda LP: 4000)**

"I'm going to begin! I draw!" Miranda began, drawing her card. "I set three cards face-down, and summon **Banisher of the Radiance**! **(ATK: 1600)** Now, any card that goes to the graveyard is removed from the game instead. Go ahead." She then stated with a smirk.

Banisher? Oh, come on, Miranda.

She REALLY wants to win, if this is the way she went.

"So, custom built your deck to fight me, then?" I asked her, shaking my head a little.

"Do you have a point? Set your deck up with such an obvious weakness, and SOMEONE is going to exploit it~" she told me cheerfully. "Don't worry, you'll be joining me in the Society soon~"

"We'll just see about that! I draw!" Now starting my turn, I looked over my hand. There was little doubt at least one of her face-down cards would stop me from attacking her banisher.

"Now, I'll start by summoning **Garoth, Lightsworn Warrior! (ATK: 1850)** Garoth, attack her banisher!" I started simply, knowing I couldn't do too much until its 'banish everything' effect was off the field. I had to be careful.

"You're a little predictable, Marcus! I activate **Magic Cylinder**! Now, you take the attack of your monster as damage!" Miranda declared. There was very little I could activate from my hand in response to such a card. Well played. **(My LP: 2150)**

"Perhaps if you've observed me that thoroughly, I might be. I set one card face-down and end my turn." I responded to her calmly, still looking across at her.

"Marcus, I'm a little surprised you're still resisting. After all, you're already helping the Society in everything but name, so why not just put the coat on and make it official?" She then asked me with a smile on her face.

"Because I'm nobody's pawn, Miranda! I have no intention of calling anyone 'master', much less a cult boss like him!" I retorted angrily, the idea starting to raise my ire.

"All right then! I draw! Now, I summon **Thunder King Rai-oh**! **(ATK: 1900)** Now, Thunder King, attack his Garoth! **(My LP: 2100)** Banisher, direct attack! **(My LP: 500)** Go ahead, Marcus!" She then told me, looking absolutely giddy at my current state.

"You're kinda letting me down here, Marcus~" She then chided me, though still sounding on top of the world right now. "At least put up a fight!"

Heaving a sigh, I shook my head a little "I'll admit, I wasn't quite ready for someone to hard-counter my deck. However, there's no way I'm just going to give up!" I then told her, drawing for my turn.

"I'll start by activating my face-down card: **Royal Decree**!" I declared. "Now, I'll summon **Jain, Lightsworn Paladin! (ATK: 1800)** Let's see you stop this! Jain, attack her Banisher! Once she declares her attack, she gains 300 attack points! **(ATK: 1800 – 2100)** "

Watching as this second attack met with success, I nodded, content with the current state. **(Miranda LP: 4000 – 3500)** "Now, after my battle phase, I activate the spell card **Solar Recharge**! I discard **Wulf, Lightsworn Beast** in order to draw two cards, then send two further cards to my graveyard!" Looking at my hand, I nodded a little "Now, I activate a second copy of **Solar Recharge** , discarding **Lumina, Lightsworn Summoner** to draw another two cards, then send another two cards to my graveyard! I'll put one more card face-down, and end my turn. Now, I send a further two cards to my graveyard due to Jain's effect!"

"Not bad, but you'll have to do better than that if you want to beat me!" Miranda then responded, smile not fading, considering she had seven times my life point total, that was fully justified. "I draw! Now, I activate the spell card **Dimensional Fissure**! Now, any monster that would go to the graveyard is removed from play instead. Now, Thunder King, attack his Jain!"

Shaking my head a little, I looked down at my duel disk, and pressing the button to remove a card from my graveyard "By the effect of my **Necro Gardna** , I remove it from play, and negate your attack!" Watching the lightning dissipate before hitting Jain, I waited for her to make her move.

"All right, but let's see you get another one into your graveyard!" Miranda challenged, before informing me "I'll set one card face-down, and end my turn."

"All right then, my turn! I draw!" I then started, beginning my turn. "Now, I'll summon **Lyla, Lightsworn Sorceress**! **(ATK: 1700)** "

"Oh, your mistake, Marcus! I activate my face-down card, **Book of Moon**! This will put your Lyla into face-down defence mode! You won't be destroying my fissure this turn!" Miranda then informed me with a smirk. "You didn't think I'd have ways around Royal Decree, even without my means of getting rid of it?"

Nodding at this, I couldn't help but admit, "Not a bad play, Miranda, but that won't stop me getting rid of your Thunder King! Jain! Attack! **(ATK: 1800 – 2100)** " **(Miranda LP: 3500 – 3200)**

"All right, then, now I'll have to let you go." I admitted with a sigh.

"Don't forget..." She then started, smiling at me "…by Jain's effect, you have to send your top two cards to the graveyard, and remove from play any monsters you send." Watching me send the cards, and remove the Ryko I sent, before nodding.

"Okay then! My move! I draw!" Miranda declared, starting her turn. "Oh, too bad! I activate the spell card **Mystical Space Typhoon** , destroying your Royal Decree! Now, I set a monster face-down, and let you have it."

Now she was finally top-decking, and I still hadn't lost. I might have a chance, especially since she couldn't destroy my Lyla! I lost my decree, but I still seemed to have enough momentum to get something done!

"My turn! I draw! Now, I flip **Lyla, Lightsworn Sorceress** back into attack mode! **(ATK: 1700)** " Waiting for her to make a move, she didn't respond. Now, I resumed my turn, "I now activate Lyla's effect! Switching her to defence mode, I'll destroy your…"

" _Are you so sure about that?"_ A voice spoke to me in my head. Recognizing the voice as Sartorius', I heard it then again say " _One more bad face-down, and you will find yourself losing this duel, will you not?"_

Damn it, he's right!

"…face-down card! The one on your left!" **(Lyla DEF: 200)** I finished my sentence, destroying one of her face-downs, which I could glimpse from across the arena before it exploded.

Macro Cosmos? Looks like it would have kept up the banishing either way.

"Hmm, not bad. You still got my Macro Cosmos." Miranda ceded. "Though, I'd think you would have destroyed my fissure. If you had Charge of the Light Brigade in your hand, paying your cost would have come before I could counter it." She then commented with a smile.

"Or you would have activated it in response to my effect." I answered, looking over the field. She has one face-down card and a face-down monster, along with dimensional fissure. "Now, since I have two light monsters on my side of the field, I special summon **Guardian of Order**! **(ATK: 2500)**

"I'm not scared of your monsters, Marcus. I activate the trap card **Torrential Tribute**! Destroying and removing from play every monster on the field, unless that face-down of yours is My Body as- oh, wait, you don't have the life points to use it, even if that was the case." She commented with a giggle.

Keeping my face composed, I removed all the monsters from my field, still having a hand while she was top-decking, however, still left me at an advantage. "I now summon **Ehren, Lightsworn Monk! (ATK: 1600)** Ehren, attack her directly!" **(Miranda LP: 3200 – 1600)**

 **"** Heh, not bad, Marcus." She commented, still smiling, confident she would still win, but to me, it looked as if she were in a rather bad position. Perhaps she figured as long as she had dimensional fissure in play, she would be fine.

"All right then. I now end my turn, sending three cards from my deck to my graveyard by Ehren's effect." Milling another three cards, sending a Judgement Dragon and a second Necro Gardna out of my graveyard since dimensional fissure was still in play.

"Okay then! My turn! I draw!" Looking at her only card, Miranda nodded "Perfect. I set one card face-down and end my turn."

Looking across at her, un-amused, I started my turn "I draw!" looking at my hand, shaking my head.

If that card is a trap, it would kill me. But, if I can get past that card, then I win! I wouldn't even need to summon a new monster, I could just attack now!

" _Are you sure you want to do that?"_ The voice of Sartorius once again spoke in my head. " _After all, if you win, then her condition, that fixation on you would certainly get worse. It could very well become dangerous, for the both of you."_

"If I win…" I started, shaking a little as my brain made attempts to process what I should do. "…it'll get worse. But if I lose, then nothing."

" _Of course not. You are already of the Light. If you join the Society, it just puts a name on that. You do not wish to bring further suffering to your friends, do you?"_ The voice asked me while I was trying to think.

" _You're already on his side, Marcus!"_ Kyle then told me, the thought of this as real as anyone I could actually see.

" _You brainwash people whether you know it or not!"_ A similar image of Chazz then declared.

" _It doesn't matter. You are already here."_ A voice of the original, cold Miranda then stated.

Looking across the arena at her, I looked over my hand. "I switch Ehren to defence mode and end my turn." **(Ehren DEF: 1000)** Sending the three cards required, I remained silent now, as I knew it was the only real option: I HAD to lose, for her sake.

Besides, if I was already affected by the Light, then my induction into the Society wouldn't actually affect me at all.

"Oh? All right then, Marcus. Didn't know you could be so reserved in a duel! I draw! Now, that reservation will cost you! I activate **Return From the Different Dimension**! By paying half my life points **(Miranda LP: 1600 – 800)** I can summon as many of my removed from play monsters as possible! I summon **Thunder King Rai-oh** and **D.D. Warrior**!" **(Rai-oh ATK: 1900) (Warrior ATK: 1200)**

Warrior Lady, when did that- oh. That must have been the monster that got destroyed by torrential tribute.

"Now, D.D. Warrior, attack his Ehren! When the battle is resolved, by his effect, both monsters are removed from play!" Miranda thought to inform me, as if I didn't know what it did already, but I'd known that already. **(Miranda LP: 800 – 400)**

Once the monsters vanished, she looked across at me "Welcome to the Society, Marcus! Thunder King Rai-oh, attack him directly!" As the burst of lightning moved toward me, I braced for the final attack, engulfed by the arcs of lightning as I took the hit. **(My LP: 500 – 0)**

Well, that was it.

I lost.

I guess this is the way we're going to have to go now.


End file.
